/BERI(7lET\ 

LIBRARY 

i     UNIVERSITY  OP     I 
VcALIFOtNIA/ 


EARTH 

SCIENCES 

LIBRARY 


GIFT  OF 
L*    Gamp 


.- 


LEADING  AMERICAN  MEN  OF  SCIENCE 


ies  of  ilea&mg  Americans; 

Edited  by  W.  P.  TRENT 


LEADING  AMERICAN 
MEN  OF  SCIENCE 


EDITED  BY 

DAVID  STARR  JORDAN 

President  of  Stanford  University 


WITH  SEVENTEEN  PORTRAITS 


NEW  YORK 

HENRY  HOLT  AND  COMPANY 
1910 


Copyright,  1910, 

BY 
HENRY  HOLT  AND  COMPANY 

Published  October,  1910 


•^<fe>N*W) 

U\O-M 


T.    MOREY    &    SON 
BLECTROTYPBRS    &    PRINTER^5,    GREENFIELD,    MASS. 


CONTENTS 1 

PAGE 

EDITOR'S  PREFACE 3 

BENJAMIN  THOMPSON,  COUNT  RUMFORD,  Physicist  [1753- 

1814] 9 

By  EDWIN  E.  SLOSSON 

ALEXANDER  WILSON,   Ornithologist   [1766-1813] 51 

By  WITHER  STONE 

JOHN  JAMES  AUDUBON,  Ornithologist  [1780-1851] 71 

By  WITMER  STONE 

BENJAMIN  SILLIMAN,  Chemist  [1779-1864] 89 

By  DANIEL  Con  OILMAN 

JOSEPH  HENRY,  Physicist  [1797-1878]       119 

By  SIMON  NEWCOMB 

LOUIS  AGASSIZ,  Zoologist  [1807-1873] 147 

By  CHARLES  FREDERICK  HOLDER 

JEFFRIES  WYMAN,  Anatomist  [1814-1874]    . 171 

By  BURT  G.  WILDER 

ASA  GRAY,  Botanist  [1810-1888] 211 

By  JOHN  M.  COULTER 

JAMES  DWIGHT  DANA,  Geologist  [1813-1895]       233 

By  WILLIAM  NORTH  RICE 

SPENCER  FULLERTON  BAIRD,  Geologist  [1823-1887]       ...     269 
By  CHARLES  FREDERICK  HOLDER 

OTHNIEL  CHARLES  MARSH,  Paleontologist  [1831-1899]     ...     283 
By  GEORGE  BIRD  GRINNELL 

EDWARD  DRINKER  COPE,  Paleontologist  [1840-1897]     ...    313 
By  MARCUS  BENJAMIN 

JOSIAH  WILLARD  GIBBS,  Physicist  [1839-1903] 341 

By  EDWIN  E.  SLOSSON 

1  The  lives  are  arranged,  not  chronologically  by  date  of  birth,  but  by  median  date. 

V 


M  2731 


vi  CONTENTS 

PAGE 

SIMON  NEWCOMB,  Astronomer  [1835-1909] 363 

By  MARCUS  BENJAMIN 

GEORGE  BROWN  GOODE,  Zoologist  [1851-1896] 391 

By  DAVID  STARR  JORDAN 

HENRY  AUGUSTUS  ROWLAND,  Physicist  [1848-1901]       ...    405 
By  IRA  REMSEN 

WILLIAM  KEITH    BROOKS,  Zoologist  [1848-1908] 427 

By  E.  A.  ANDREWS 


PORTRAITS 

PACING  PAGE 

BENJAMIN  THOMPSON,  COUNT  RUMFORD,  Frontispiece       Title 

ALEXANDER  WILSON 51 

JOHN  JAMES  AUDUBON 71 

BENJAMIN  SILLIMAN 89 

JOSEPH  HENRY 119 

Louis  AGASSIZ 147 

JEFFRIES  WYMAN 171 

ASA  GRAY 211 

JAMES  DWIGHT  DANA 233 

SPENCER  FULLER-TON  BAIRD 269 

OTHNIEL  CHARLES  MARSH 283 

EDWARD  DRINKER  COPE       313 

JOSIAH  WlLLARD  GlBBS 341 

SIMON  NEWCOMB 363 

GEORGE  BROWN  GOODE 391 

HENRY  AUGUSTUS  ROWLAND 405 

WILLIAM  KEITH  BROOKS 427 


vii 


LEADING  AMERICAN  MEN  OF  SCIENCE 


EDITOR'S  PREFACE 

AT  the  death  of  Simon  Newcomb,  it  was  stated  in  one  of  our 
journals  that  he  had  left  "a  record  wholly  blameless  and  wholly 
salutary,  whose  work  added  to  the  only  permanent  wealth  of  na- 
tions." In  this  view  is  found  the  key-note  of  the  present  volume. 
In  the  extension  and  coordination  of  human  experience,  in  the 
widening  of  the  boundaries  of  knowledge  and  in  the  attainment  of 
greater  exactness  in  the  details,  is  found  the  only  permanent 
wealth  of  nations.  All  this  constitutes  the  subject-matter  of  science, 
and  in  science  we  find  the  basis  for  the  development  of  the  finest 
of  fine  arts,  that  of  human  conduct.  As  we  understand  better  the 
universe  around  us,  our  relations  to  others  and  to  ourselves,  the 
behavior  of  our  race  becomes  rationalized.  It  becomes  possible 
for  us  to  keep  ourselves  clean,  and  to  make  ourselves  open-minded, 
friendly  and  God-fearing.  In  the  achievements  of  science,  there- 
fore, we  may  properly  find  the  only  permanent  wealth  of  nations. 
It  is  the  only  wealth  which  is  superior  to  fire  and  flood,  the  only 
wealth  beyond  the  reach  of  entanglements  of  political  intrigue,  or 
the  wanton  ravages  of  war. 

To  the  men  who  have  widened  the  boundaries  of  human  knowl- 
edge, we  owe  a  debt  which  we  can  repay  only  by  a  friendly  remem- 
brance of  the  work  these  men  have  done.  We  owe  them  our 
gratitude  for  their  successes,  and  their  mistakes  call  on  us  only  for 
our  sympathy.  No  one  knows  their  struggles  or  their  achievements 
so  well  as  those  who  have  followed  them  over  the  same  paths. 

In  this  fact  the  present  volume  finds  its  reason  for  being.  Mr. 
Henry  Holt,  whom  we  may  without  offense  call  "our  beloved 
publisher,"  first  planned  this  book.  It  was  his  desire  that  it 
should  contain  short  and  sympathetic  biographies  of  fifteen  leaders 
in  American  science,  each  one  written  by  a  man  in  some  degree 

3 


4  EDITOR'S  PREFACE 

known  as  a  disciple.  The  subjects  of  these  sketches  should  all  be 
chosen  from  the  list  of  those  no  longer  living.  While  no  one  can 
say  which  of  all  these  is  greatest,  the  fifteen  should  be  chosen  from 
among  the  great.  Benjamin  Franklin,  whose  name  comes  to  the 
front  at  the  first,  was  omitted,  as  his  biography  was  already  pro- 
vided for  in  another  volume  in  the  same  series.  Simon  Newcomb 
and  William  Keith  Brooks,  men  with  undisputed  place  in  the 
first  rank,  were  added,  as  they  passed  from  earth  while  the  vol- 
ume was  nearing  completion. 

At  the  request  of  Mr.  Holt,  the  present  writer,  as  a  labor  of  love, 
undertook  the  compilation  of  these  records.  He  is  responsible 
for  the  choice  of  subjects,  and  for  the  choice  of  authors,  but  the 
pressure  of  work  forced  him  to  stop  at  that  point,  and  to  place 
the  editorial  work  in  the  more  competent  hands  of  Dr.  Edwin  E. 
Slosson,  with  whom  all  further  responsibility  in  this  volume  rests. 

But  before  laying  down  his  pen,  a  few  general  considerations 
rise  to  his  attention. 

This  volume  constitutes  a  part  of  the  scientific  record  of  the 
republic  for  a  hundred  years.  It  is  the  history  of  struggles  in  a 
new  country,  without  great  libraries,  great  museums  or  great  uni- 
versities. It  represents  self-help  and  self-reliance  to  a  greater  de- 
gree than  would  be  shown  in  a  parallel  volume  in  any  other  land. 
It  shows  the  rise  of  observation  and  of  knowledge  derived  from 
travel,  before  that  arising  from  experiment,  or  that  deduced  by 
analytical  reasoning.  It  shows  the  early  charm  of  "the  land  where 
nature  is  rich,  while  tools  and  appliances  are  few,  while  of  tradi- 
tions there  are  none."  With  this,  no  doubt,  is  associated  the  charm 
of  loveableness,  characteristic  of  so  many  of  these  men,  who 
studied  nature  because  they  loved  her.  With  all  this,  too,  theirs 
were  uneventful  lives,  as  we  measure  life  in  the  stress  of  modern 
industrial  development.  Leaving  aside  Benjamin  Thompson, 
whose  history  was  wholly  unique,  nothing  startling  happened  to 
any  one  of  them.  None  of  them  gained  or  lost  great  wealth. 
None  of  them  was  elected  to  the  Senate;  none  of  them  led  embat- 
tled hosts  to  victory,  and  none  took  part  in  any  form  of  public 
melodrama  which  would  make  his  name  known  in  the  theaters 


EDITOR'S  PREFACE  5 

or  on  the  streets.  Agassiz,  always  picturesque  and  always  in- 
tensely alive,  could  not  be  said  to  have  had  a  commonplace  ca- 
reer, for  everything  in  life  was  to  him  a  marvel.  The  wonderful 
was  ever  close  to  his  open-eyed  enthusiasm,  and  the  fresh-laid  egg 
of  a  snapping  turtle  recalled  the  whole  succession  in  a  world  of 
eternal  life.  Another  picturesque  figure  was  Audubon,  artist  and 
gentleman,  in  his  velvet  hunting  coat  sketching  the  birds  of  the 
American  wilderness. 

But  the  rest  lived  quietly  and  worked  quietly  and  saw  truth. 
Theirs  were  happy  lives,  for  the  most  part  very  happy,  and  their 
record  is  the  register  of  "the  permanent  wealth"  of  our  nation. 

Another  feature  we  may  note  in  these  men  is  their  willingness 
for  public  service.  The  justification  of  science,  is,  after  all,  the 
help  it  can  give  men  towards  better  ordered  lives.  It  was  the  dream 
of  Professor  Baird  that  there  should  arise  in  Washington  a  great 
body  or  bureau  of  cooperative  science,  that  in  this  democracy 
there  should  be  maintained  a  body  of  wise  men,  keen-eyed  men 
who  should  accomplish  by  working  together  what  none  of  them 
could  do  separately,  and  the  result  of  their  combined  efforts  should 
be  always  at  the  service  of  the  bureaus  of  administration.  Thus 
from  the  Smithsonian  Institution,  Henry,  Baird,  Goode,  Langley, 
arose  the  National  Museum,  the  Fish  Commission;  and  in  similar 
fashion  arose  the  Marine  Hospital  Service,  the  Bureau  of  Forestry, 
and  the  other  bureaus  of  investigation  in  the  Department  of  Agri- 
culture. But  Baird  was  not  alone  in  giving  his  great  powers  freely 
to  the  public  service.  Many  other  have  recognized  the  fact  that 
pure  science  and  applied  science  are  not  different  in  nature  or 
function,  and  often  science  is  strengthened  and  dignified  when  it 
is  tested  by  placing  it  in  action. 

In  going  over  the  lives  of  these  men,  we  notice  that  for  the  most 
part  each  one  followed  his  natural  bent  in  devoting  himself  to 
science.  Love  of  his  work,  the  pulsation  of  personal  enthusiasm, 
is  perhaps  the  greatest  single  asset  a  man  of  science  can  have. 
Nothing  but  love  of  the  work  could  lead  a  man  to  take  up  a  scien- 
tific career  in  the  pioneer  days  of  the  republic,  and  these  days  have 
not  yet  passed.  Men  without  enthusiasm  can  be  trained  to  see, 


6  EDITOR'S  PREFACE 

to  record  and  to  think,  but  the  fine  glow  of  the  missionary  spirit 
is  not  with  these. 

And  this  fine  glow  enabled  many  of  these  men  to  become  great 
teachers.  To  be  a  great  teacher  is  in  part  a  matter  of  tempera- 
ment, though  that  power  may  lie  with  a  silent  and  reserved  man, 
like  Brooks,  as  well  as  with  the  eloquent  and  visibly  sympathetic 
ways  of  Agassiz.  Some  few,  though  teachers,  lacked  the  teach- 
ing spirit;  Gibbs  for  example  was  a  lonely  thinker,  unknown  to 
students  and  colleagues,  the  author  of  books  no  one  in  his  genera- 
tion was  ready  to  read. 

The  crowning  privilege  of  the  great  teacher  lies  in  the  heredity 
of  his  inspiration,  his  power  to  found  a  school  of  greatness  among 
younger  men  who  have  caught  his  enthusiasm  and  his  methods. 
Such  series  are  well  recognized  in  American  science.  I  once  heard 
Agassiz  say:  "I  lived  for  four  years  under  Dr.  Dollinger's  roof, 
and  my  scientific  training  goes  back  to  him  and  to  him  alone." 
The  descendants  of  Agassiz  are  well  traceable  in  American  sci- 
ence. There  is  scarcely  a  worker  in  biology  and  geology  of  the 
older  generation  who  was  not  in  some  degree  at  some  time  a  pupil 
of  Agassiz.  It  is  now  nearly  forty  years  since  Agassiz  died,  and 
the  youngest  of  those  of  us  who  knew  him  are  now  coming  also 
to  the  age  of  sixty,  the  age  when  a  man  is  set  in  his  ways  and  can 
learn  nothing  new. 

In  his  Autobiography,  Darwin,  who  never  spared  himself, 
deplores  the  fact  that  with  increasing  knowledge  (and  a  long  period 
of  nervous  invalidism)  his  mind  had  suffered  a  partial  atrophy, 
and  his  interest  in  literature,  even  the  best,  had  largely  failed  him. 
From  this  unfortunate  fact,  frankly  expressed,  the  lesson  has  been 
drawn  wearisomely  that  one  should  shun  too  much  devotion  to 
science,  under  penalty  of  esthetic  and  spiritual  barrenness.  It 
is  clear  from  the  frequent  references  in  these  biographies  to  artistic 
taste  and  skill,  that  Darwin's  experience  was  individual,  and  doubt- 
less in  some  degree  pathological.  These  men  for  the  most  part 
found  science  a  source  of  mental  freshening.  They  lost  no  human 
interest  which  they  had  ever  possessed.  In  witness  of  this  fact, 
we  see  another  of  our  great  men  of  science,  Shaler,  a  life-long  boy, 


EDITOR'S  PREFACE  7 

writing  off-hand  Elizabethan  drama,  of  a  degree  of  merit  not 
surpassed  by  any  who  have  written  the  like  since  the  days  of  the 
great  dramatists  themselves. 

We  find  again  in  the  well-ordered  lives  of  most  of  these  men  of 
real  greatness,  no  warrant  for  the  notion  that  the  "superman"  will 
rise  superior  to  the  canons  of  common  morality  and  common 
decency.  They  loved  their  wives,  they  cherished  their  families, 
they  never  figured  in  problem  plays.  The  one  or  two  exceptions 
which  the  acute  historian  may  discover  only  serve  to  emphasize 
the  rule  that  with  sound  brains  go  sound  morals. 

To  compare  these  men  with  a  like  number  of  like  men  in  Eng- 
land, Germany  or  France,  would  be  a  problem  too  difficult  to  be 
treated  here.  We  are  accustomed  to  hearing  our  real  greatness 
underrated,  while  the  petty  incidents  of  new  world  life  have  been 
subjects  of  much  cheap  boasting.  In  brief,  I  believe  that  these 
names  deserve  to  stand  with  the  highest  in  their  generation,  and 
that  no  nation  could  require  a  better  record  than  theirs.  Germany 
has  more  men  of  scientific  eminence  for  her  population.  England 
has  fewer.  But  the  greatest  of  England  are  in  no  way  less  than 
the  greatest  of  Germany.  Social  conditions  and  legal  require- 
ments drive  students  of  all  grades  and  of  all  professions  in  Ger- 
many to  the  Universities.  The  fees  of  many  doctors  call  strong 
men  to  the  University,  when  such  men  in  England  or  in  America 
would  be  occupied  in  other  ways.  German  professors  supported 
by  fees  may  teach  or  study  as  they  like.  Once  chosen  to  a  profes- 
sorship the  rest  depends  on  their  choice.  American  professors 
paid  directly  for  teaching,  largely  with  public  funds,  and  never 
by  the  fees  of  their  students,  must  perforce  teach.  As  our  universi- 
ties are  organized,  half  gymnasium,  half  university,  the  ideal  of 
research  can  be  present  with  but  few  of  them;  actual  achievement 
in  investigation  with  still  fewer.  Yet,  taking  the  field  at  large,  I 
cannot  sympathize  with  those  who  find  little  to  praise  in  American 
science.  In  the  fields  cultivated  in  the  closet  and  the  library, 
Germany  is  preeminent,  for  she  has  many  closets  and  many  libra- 
ries. In  the  fields  which  carry  men  into  the  open — topograph- 
ical geology;  paleontology;  geographical  distribution;  faunology; 


8  EDITOR'S  PREFACE 

taxonomy,  Germany  has  some  of  the  greatest  of  names,  but  her 
great  names  are  few  beside  those  of  the  United  States.  If  our 
besetting  sin  is  lack  of  intensity,  as  befits  the  breadth  and  length 
of  our  continent,  that  of  Germany  is  myopia,  as  befits  a  man 
whose  universe  is  limited  to  the  field  of  his  microscope.  There 
are  many  reasons  which  call  the  German  from  business  life  to  the 
University,  and  many  reasons  why  science  is  the  well-paid  agent 
of  manufacture.  With  us  there  are  many  reasons  which  call  a 
man  away  from  the  classroom,  and  the  intervals  between  classes 
still  constitute  our  period  for  research. 

Yet  for  all  these  deficiencies  we  shall  find  our  remedies,  and 
these  remedies  in  time  will  be  potent.  The  roll  of  our  scientific 
men  to-day  shows  a  worthy  succession  to  the  long  line  from  Rum- 
ford  to  Brooks.  With  all  defects  in  American  education,  there  is 
no  falling  off  in  ability  nor  in  enthusiasm,  nor  in  facility  for  con- 
tact with  things  as  they  are.  We  may  be  therefore  confident  that 
the  volume  of  this  series,  which  shall  cover  the  twentieth  instead 
of  the  nineteenth  century,  will  show  great  names,  great  achieve- 
ments and  great  personalities,  worthy  to  rank  with  the  best  of 
these,  our  fathers  in  science,  and  such  names,  too,  in  ever  increas- 
ing numbers,  even  as  proportioned  to  our  wealth  and  our  popula- 
tion. 

DAVID  STARR  JORDAN. 


U^V**J^^ 


BENJAMIN  THOMPSON,   COUNT 
RUMFORD 

PHYSICIST  •  :  •;:•:-,;=; 

1753-1814  ;Q    ;      ;  ;;';'.  , 

BY  EDWIN  E.  SLOSSON 

THE  life  of  a  scholar  is  apt  to  be  a  quiet  one,  externally  devoid 
of  dramatic  incidents  and  sudden  changes  of  fortune,  but  there  is 
material  enough  to  satisfy  a  writer  of  historical  romances  in  the 
life  of  the  poor  New  England  boy  who  became,  in  England,  cav- 
alry colonel,  Under  Secretary  of  State  and  Sir  Benjamin  Thomp- 
son; in  Bavaria,  Count  Rumford  of  the  Holy  Roman  Empire, 
Privy  Councilor,  Minister  of  War,  Chief  of  Police  and  Chamber- 
lain to  the  Elector  Palatine;  in  Paris,  husband  of  &femme  savante 
of  a  French  Salon;  and  who  died  alone  and  friendless  in  the  city 
where  he  had  been  honored  by  Napoleon  while  living,  and  was 
eulogized  by  Cuvier  when  dead.  The  name  of  the  New  England 
town  which  persecuted  him  as  a  traitor  he  made  known  and  hon- 
ored throughout  the  world;  he  left  his  fortune  to  the  country  he 
fought.  England  owes  to  him  the  Royal  Institution,  as  we  owe 
our  similar  Smithsonian  Institution  to  an  ij!nglishman.  In  Mu- 
nich he  had  a  monument  erected  in  his  honor  while  yet  alive 
for  his  philanthropic  work,  and  was  lampooned  by  the  press  of 
London  for  doing  the  same  work  there.  As  an  intellectual  free 
lance  he  did  service  in  as  many  different  realms  of  science  as  he 
did  military  service  in  different  countries.  He  laid  the  first  foun- 
dation  of  the  greatest  generalization  the  human  mind  has  yet  con- 
ceived, thej^w  "f  thp  rnngArvatirm  ftf  (MPT  and  ne  explained 
the  construction  of  coffee-pots.  He  was  in  action  and  thought  a 
paradoxical  philosopher. 

9 


10  LEADING  AMERICAN  MEN  OF  SCIENCE 

Benjamin  Thompson  was  born  March  25,  1753,  at  Woburn, 
Mass.,  in  the  farmhouse  of  his  grandfather  Ebenezer  Thompson. 
The  house  is  still  standing,  preserved  as  a  museum  by  the  Rum- 
ford  Historical  Association.  He  was  a  descendant  of  James 
Thompson  who  came  to  New  England  with  Governor  Winthrop 
in  1630,  and  was  one  of  the  first  settlers  of  Woburn. 

A  few  months  after  his  birth  his  father  died  at  the  age  of  26, 
thus  leading  ;hi?n  to  the  care  of  his  mother  and  grandfather.  Just 
three  years  after  the  birth  of  Benjamin  his  mother  married  Josiah 
Pierce,;  Jr., -of  Woburn,  who  received  from  his  guardian  an  allow- 
ance of  two  shillings  and  fivepence  per  week  until  the  boy  was  seven 
years  old.  To  the  apparent  misfortune  of  thus  being  deprived  at 
an  early  age  of  both  paternal  care  and  patrimony  he  owed  his 
European  career.  As  he  said  in  later  years  to  his  friend,  Professor 
Pictet  of  Geneva: 

"If  the  death  of  my  father  had  not,  contrary  to  the  order  of  na- 
ture, preceded  that  of  my  grandfather  who  gave  all  his  property 
to  my  uncle,  his  second  son,  I  should  have  lived  and  died  an  Amer- 
ican husbandman.  It  was  a  circumstance  purely  accidental, 
which,  while  I  was  an  infant,  decided  my  destiny  in  attracting 
my  attention  to  the  object  of  science.  The  father  of  one  of  my 
companions,  a  very  respectable  minister,  and,  besides,  very  en- 
lightened (by  name  Barnard),  gave  me  his  friendship,  and  of  his 
own  prompting,  undertook  to  instruct  me.  He  taught  me  algebra, 
geometry,  astronomy  and  even  the  higher  mathematics.  Before 
the  age  of  fourteen,  I  had  made  sufficient  progress  in  this  class  of 
studies  to  be  able,  without  his  aid  and  even  without  his  knowledge, 
to  calculate  and  trace  correctly  the  elements  of  a  solar  eclipse. 
We  observed  it  together,  and  my  computation  was  correct  within 
four  seconds.  I  shall  never  forget  the  intense  pleasure  which  this 
success  afforded  me,  nor  the  praises  which  it  drew  from  him.  I 
had  been  destined  for  trade,  but  after  a  short  trial,  my  thirst  for 
knowledge  became  inextinguishable,  and  I  would  not  apply  my- 
self to  anything  but  my  favorite  objects  of  study." 

This  account  of  his  early  education  confirms  the  legends  of  his 
birthplace  that  the  young  Benjamin  Thompson  was  somewhat 
indifferent  to  the  routine  duties  of  the  farm  and  the  shop  and  in- 
clined to  devote  a  larger  proportion  of  his  time  to  scientific  expert 


BENJAMIN  THOMPSON,  COUNT  RUMFORD          n 

ments  and  diversions  in  mathematics  than  his  guardians  and 
employers  thought  proper  in  an  apprentice.  But  in  spite  of  the 
variety  of  his  pursuits,  he  seems  to  have  done  his  work  well  and 
to  have  made  good  use  of  what  schooling  he  could  get.  His 
teacher  at  Woburn  was  John  Fowle,  a  graduate  of  Harvard  Col- 
lege in  1747. 

In  the  year  1766  he  was  apprenticed  to  John  Appleton  of 
Salem,  an  importer  of  British  goods  and  retailer  of  general  mer- 
chandise. It  was  here  he  was  brought  under  the  influence  of  the 
Rev.  Thomas  Barnard,  minister  of  the  First  Church  of  Salem,  and 
a  man  of  unusual  scholarship  and  ability.  Thompson's  accounts 
and  letters  at  this  time  show  him  to  be  accurate,  orderly  and  skil- 
ful in  the  use  of  the  pen.  He  engraved  a  book-plate  for  himself 
with  a  very  elaborate  heraldic  device  combining,  in  the  common 
symbolism  of  the  day,  an  all-seeing  eye,  a  ship,  books,  square  and 
compass,  sword  and  a  couchant  lion.  His  friend  Baldwin  writes 
of  him: 

"He  employed  as  much  of  his  time,  as  he  could  by  any  means 
steal  from  the  duties  of  his  station,  to  amuse  himself  with  study 
and  little,  ingenious,  mechanical  recreations,  and  would  be  more 
frequently  found  with  a  penknife,  file  and  gimlet  under  the  coun- 
ter, than  with  his  pen  and  account  books  in  the  counting  room." 

Benjamin  Thompson  was  no  exception  to  the  old  saying  that 
no  man  ever  became  a  great  physicist  who  did  not  attempt  to 
invent  a  machine  for  perpetual  motion  in  his  youth,  for  he  walked 
one  night  from  Salem  to  Woburn  to  show  Baldwin  a  contrivance 
of  wheels  and  levers  which  he  thought  would  solve  the  problem 
of  perpetual  motion. 

While  he  was  at  Salem  the  news  of  the  repeal  of  the  Stamp  Act 
was  received,  but  young  Thompson  took  less  interest  in  its  effect 
upon  the  importation  business  in  which  he  was  engaged  than  he 
did  in  the  opportunity  of  making  some  chemical  experiments 
with  materials  furnished  at  the  expense  of  the  public.  But  in 
grinding  together  the  ingredients  of  the  powder  for  his  home- 
made rockets,  the  mixture  exploded,  severely  burning  his  face 
and  breast  and  temporarily  destroying  his  sight.  This  accident 


12  LEADING  AMERICAN  MEN  OF  SCIENCE 

did  not  discourage  him,  for  throughout  his  life  he  retained  an 
interest  in  explosives  to  which,  both  in  England  and  Bavaria,  he 
devoted  much  attention.  His  letters  to  his  most  intimate  friend, 
Loammi  Baldwin,  afterwards  colonel  in  the  Revolutionary  Army 
and  engineer  of  the  Middlesex  Canal,  indicate  the  extent  and 
diversity  of  his  scientific  curiosity. 

WOBURN,  Aug.  14,  1769. 
"MR.  LOAMMI  BALDWIN, 

"Sir:  Please  to  give  me  Direction  of  the  Rays  of  Light  from  a 
Luminous  Body  to  an  Opake  and  the  Reflection  from  the  Opake 
Body  to  another  equally  Dense  and  Opake;  viz.  the  Direction  of 
the  Rays  of  the  Luminous  Body  to  that  of  the  Opake  and  the  di- 
rection of  rays  by  reflection  to  the  other  Opake  Body. 

"Yours,  etc., 

"BENJAMIN  THOMPSON. 

"N.  B.— From  the  Sun  to  the  Earth  Reflected  to  the  Moon  at 
an  angle  of  40  degrees." 

In  1769  Thompson  was  apprenticed  as  clerk  to  Hopestill  Capen, 
a  dry  goods  dealer  in  Boston,  but  his  employer  having  entered 
into  the  boycott  of  British  goods,  he  had  little  to  do  and  in  a  few 
months  returned  to  his  house  in  Woburn  where  "he  was  received 
by  his  acquaintances  with  unwelcome  pity,  as  an  unfortunate 
young  man,  who  could  not  fix  his  mind  on  any  regular  employ- 
ment, and  would  never  be  able  to  support  himself,  or  afford  any 
consolation  to  his  friends." 

His  stay  in  Boston,  although  short,  was  utilized  in  acquiring 
some  of  the  accomplishments  which  afterwards  proved  of  so  much 
use  to  him  in  the  courts  of  Europe.  He  took  lessons  in  French 
every  evening,  except  Sunday,  practiced  drawing  and  engraving, 
played  on  the  violin,  rehearsed  plays  and  exercised  with  the  back 
sword.  At  the  Boston  Massacre,  March  5,  1770,  he  is  said  to  have 
been  in  the  midst  of  the  crowd,  sword  in  hand,  eager  for  an  attack 
upon  the  British  troops  which  a  few  years  later  he  was  to  lead 
against  his  own  countrymen. 

Freed  from  imprisonment  in  the  shop,  Thompson,  now  seven- 
teen, spent  the  next  two  years  in  the  study  of  medicine  and  natural 


BENJAMIN  THOMPSON,  COUNT  RUMFORD          13 

philosophy,  and  in  teaching  school  at  Wilmington  and  Bradford. 
The  program  of  daily  duties  that  he  drew  up  for  himself  is  so 
characteristic  of  the  methodical  and  industrious  disposition  of 
his  whole  life  as  to  be  worth  quoting; 

"From  eleven  to  six,  Sleep.  Get  up  at  six  o'clock  and  wash  my 
hands  and  face.  From  six  to  eight,  exercise  one  half  and  study 
one  half.  From  eight  till  ten,  Breakfast,  attend  Prayers,  etc. 
From  ten  to  twelve,  Study  all  the  time.  From  twelve  to  one,  Dine, 
etc.  From  one  to  four,  study  constantly.  From  four  to  five,  Re- 
lieve my  mind  by  some  diversion  or  Exercise.  From  five  till  Bed- 
time, follow  what  my  inclination  leads  me  to;  whether  it  be  to  go 
abroad,  or  stay  at  home  and  read  either  Anatomy,  Physic  or 
Chemistry,  or  any  other  book  I  want  to  Peruse." 

He  later  obtained  by  the  influence  of  some  Boston  friends  the 
privilege  of  attending  the  lectures  of  Professor  Winthrop  on 
experimental  philosophy  at  Harvard  College,  and  every  day  he 
and  his  friend  Baldwin  walked  eight  miles  from  Woburn  to  Cam- 
bridge, and  on  their  return  repeated  the  experiments  in  mechanics 
and  electricity  with  apparatus  of  their  own  construction.  That 
the  two  boys  were  not  so  completely  absorbed  in  abstract  science 
as  to  be  oblivious  to  the  attractions  of  the  road  is  proved  by  their 
discovery  on  a  hillside  farm  in  Medford  of  an  apple-tree  bearing 
fruit  of  superior  quality,  which  was  afterwards  cultivated  by 
Colonel  Baldwin,  introduced  by  Count  Rumford  into  Europe  and 
is  still  known  as  the  "Baldwin  apple." 

How  much  Count  Rumford  appreciated  the  help  he  got  from 
Harvard  College  is  shown  by  his  bequeathing  to  that  institution 
the  reversion  of  his  whole  estate,  to  found  a  professorship  "to 
teach  the  utility  of  the  physical  and  mathematical  sciences  for  the 
improvement  of  the  useful  arts,  and  for  the  extension  of  the  in- 
dustry, prosperity,  happiness  and  well  being  of  Society."  Dr. 
Jacob  Bigelow  was  first  elected  to  the  Rumford  Professorship  in 
1816.  His  successors  have  been  Daniel  Treadwell,  Eben  Hors- 
ford,  Walcott  Gibbs,  and  John  Trowbridge.  * 

The  Rumford  Fund  for  the  support  of  this  professorship  now 
amounts  to  $56,368.73. 


14  LEADING  AMERICAN  MEN  OF  SCIENCE 

Thompson's  third  attempt  at  school  teaching  resulted  in  a 
decided  change  of  fortune,  for  he  was  called  to  a  town  which  was 
to  give  him  a  name,  a  wife  and  a  fortune,  the  town  now  known  as 
Concord,  New  Hampshire,  but  which  had  been  incorporated  in 
1733  as  Rumford,  Essex  County,  Massachusetts.  Here  again  we 
may,  with  advantage,  quote  his  own  words  as  reported  by  Pictet: 

"I  was  then  launched  at  the  right  time  upon  a  world  which  was 
almost  strange  to  me,  and  I  was  obliged  to  form  the  habit  of 
thinking  and  acting  for  myself  and  of  depending  on  myself  for  a 
livelihood.  My  ideas  were  not  yet  fixed;  one  project  succeeded 
another  and  perhaps  I  should  have  acquired  a  habit  of  indecision 
and  inconstancy,  perhaps  I  should  have  been  poor  and  unhappy 
all  my  life,  if  a  woman  had  not  loved  me — if  she  had  not  given  me 
a  subsistence;  a  home  and  an  independent  fortune.  I  married, 
or  rather  was  married  at  the  age  of  nineteen.  I  espoused  the 
widow  of  a  Col.  Rolfe,  daughter  of  the  Rev.  Mr.  Walker,  a  highly 
respectable  minister  and  one  of  the  first  settlers  of  Rumford." 

Sarah  Walker  had  married  at  the  age  of  thirty  Colonel  Benja- 
min Rolfe,  twice  her  age,  one  of  the  richest  and  most  important 
men  of  the  country,  who  had  died  two  years  later,  leaving  her  with 
one  son,  afterwards  Colonel  Paul  Rolfe.  Since  she  was  some 
thirteen  years  older  than  Benjamin  Thompson,  and  so  far  above 
the  penniless  school  teacher  in  social  position,  it  is  probable  that, 
as  he  intimates,  she  took  the  initiative  in  the  affair  and  exercised 
the  privilege  of  a  princess  towards  a  lover  of  low  degree.  She 
took  him  to  Boston  before  their  marriage  in  the  chaise  of  the  late 
husband  (noted  in  Concord  history  as  the  first  carriage  brought 
into  the  place)  and  gave  him  an  opportunity  of  indulging  for  the 
first  time  his  fondness  for  fine  clothes,  for  his  outfit  included  a 
scarlet  coat.  They  drove  back  through  the  villlage  of  Woburn, 
and  stopping  at  his  mother's  door,  she  came  out  and  exclaimed: 
"Why,  Ben,  my  child,  how  could  you  go  and  spend  your  whole 
winter's  wages  in  this  way  ?  " 

Their  wedding  tour  was  taken  in  the  fall  of  1772  to  Portsmouth 
near  which  was  a  grand  military  review  of  the  Second  Provincial 
Regiment  of  New  Hampshire.  Thompson's  fine  appearance  on 
horseback  as  one  of  the  spectators  attracted  the  attention  of 


BENJAMIN  THOMPSON,  COUNT  RUMFORD          15 

Governor  Wentworth.  His  wife  introduced  him  to  the  governor, 
and  he  made  such  a  favorable  impression  by  his  readiness  in 
conversation  and  wide  information  that  he  was  soon  after  ap- 
pointed a  major  in  the  regiment.  Nothing  could  have  been  more 
suited  to  Thompson's  ambitions,  but  it  brought  misfortune  upon 
him  in  two  ways;  it  offended  the  other  officers  that  a  youth  of 
nineteen,  without  military  experience,  should  have  been  thus 
placed  over  them,  and  the  marked  favor  shown  him  by  the  gover- 
nor caused  him  to  be  suspected  by  the  patriots  as  a  tool  of  the 
Royalists.  It  was  in  fact  this  spite  and  suspicion  that  drove  him 
from  America. 

Young  Thompson  entered  into  his  new  role  of  landed  proprietor 
with  his  usual  zeal  and  energy,  introducing  new  seeds  imported 
from  London,  and  taking  an  active  part  in  the  politics  and  develop- 
ment of  the  colony.  He  broached  a  scheme  for  the  survey  of  the 
White  Mountains  to  Governor  Wentworth  who  not  only  approved 
it,  but  offered  to  accompany  the  expedition  in  person.  But  it 
was  never  carried  out,  for  already  more  serious  affairs  were  on 
foot.  Thompson's  growing  popularity  with  the  governor,  and  his 
own  undeniably  aristocratic  tendencies  combined  to  render  him 
a  suspect  by  the  ardent  patriots  of  the  vicinity.  In  the  summer 
of  1774  he  was  summoned  before  the  patriotic  committee  to  an- 
swer to  the  charge  of  "  being  unfriendly  to  the  cause  of  liberty," 
the  chief  complaint  being  that  he  was  in  correspondence  with 
General  Gage  in  Boston  and  had  returned  to  him  four  deserters. 
He  made  a  satisfactory  explanation  of  his  conduct  and  sentiments 
and  was  discharged,  but  the  suspicions  were  not  removed  from 
the  minds  of  his  enemies,  and  since  formal  and  semi-legal  pro- 
ceedings had  failed,  they  resorted  to  violence.  One  November 
night  a  mob  surrounded  the  Rolfe  mansion  and  demanded  Major 
Thompson,  but  he,  receiving  an  intimation  of  the  attack  and  know- 
ing the  impossibility  of  proving  his  innocence  to  an  impassioned 
mob,  had  borrowed  a  horse  and  $20  from  his  brother-in-law  and 
escaped  to  Woburn.  He  wrote  to  the  Rev.  Walker,  his  father-in- 
law,  that  he  "never  did,  nor,  let  my  treatment  be  what  it  will, 
ever  will  do  any  action  that  may  have  the  most  distant  tendency  to 


1 6  LEADING  AMERICAN  MEN  OF  SCIENCE 

injure  the  true  interests  of  this  my  native  country."  It  is  quite 
conceivable,  however,  that  his  definition  of  " true  interests"  may 
have  differed  even  at  this  time,  from  that  of  the  ardent  bands  of 
Tory-hunters  then  scouring  the  country. 

On  May  16,  1775,  he  was  again  arrested  "upon  suspicion  of 
being  inimical  to  the  liberties  of  this  country"  and  was  kept  in 
prison  for  two  weeks,  when  he  was  formally  acquitted  by  the 
"  Committee  of  Correspondence  for  the  Town  of  Woburn"  with 
the  verdict  that  they  "do  not  find  that  the  said  Thompson  in  any 
one  instance  has  shown  a  Disposition  unfriendly  to  American 
Liberty,  but  that  his  general  behavior  has  evinced  the  direct 
contrary." 

He  tried  to  get  an  appointment  in  the  Continental  Army  and 
secured  an  interview  with  Washington,  but  the  New  Hampshire 
officers  over  whom  he  had  been  promoted  exerted  too  powerful 
an  influence  against  him.  Nevertheless,  during  his  stay  at  Wo- 
burn he  made  himself  as  useful  as  he  was  allowed  to  in  the  organi- 
zation of  the  army.  In  company  with  Major  Baldwin  he  inspected 
the  fortifications  on  Bunker  Hill  and  he  spent  some  time  drilling 
the  troops  and  designing  uniforms. 

But  finding  it  impossible  to  secure  a  position  in  the  American 
army,  and  equally  impossible,  at  least  for  one  of  his  adventurous 
disposition,  to  remain  neutral  and  idle  in  such  stirring  times,  he 
decided  to  seek  in  the  British  army  the  military  career  he  coveted 
and,  nearly  a  year  after  he  had  been  driven  from  his  home  in 
Concord,  he  left  Woburn  for  Boston.  Here  he  was  received  with 
a  welcome  from  the  British  very  strongly  in  contrast  to  the  cold- 
ness of  his  countrymen,  and,  in  spite  of  his  youth  and  inexperi- 
ence, he  soon  rose  into  the  confidence  of  the  authorities.  Upon 
the  evacuation  of  Boston  he  was  sent  to  England  to  convey  the 
news,  and  so  severed  his  connection  with  his  native  land.  He 
never  saw  his  wife  again;  the  daughter  whom  he  left  as  an  infant 
twice  visited  him  in  Europe  when  a  grown  woman. 

His  early  biographers  put  themselves  to  much  trouble  to  ex- 
plain and  apologize  for  his  action  in  thus  siding  with  the  enemies 
of  his  country,  but  now,  when  the  descendants  of  the  Loyalists 


BENJAMIN  THOMPSON,  COUNT  RUMFORD          17 

show  no  less  pride  in  their  ancestry  than  the  Sons  of  the  Revolu- 
tion, we  can  see  the  situation  in  fairer  perspective,  and,  although 
we  may  disapprove  of  his  decision  and  regret  the  loss  to  America 
of  another  Franklin,  we  must  realize  that  it  was  fortunate  both 
for  Thompson  and  the  world  that  his  peculiar  genius  found  in 
Europe  a  field  for  its  development  that  America  could  not  have  af- 
forded. 

On  leaving  America  he  wrote  to  his  father-in-law,  the  Rev. 
Walker  of  Concord: 

"Though  I  foresee  and  realize  the  distress,  poverty  and  wretch- 
edness that  must  unavoidably  attend  my  Pilgrimage  in  unknown 
lands,  destitute  of  fortune,  friends,  and  acquaintances,  yet  all 
these  evils  appear  to  me  more  tolerable  than  the  treatment  which 
I  met  with  from  the  hands  of  mine  ungrateful  countrymen." 

If  this  really  represents  Benjamin  Thompson's  anticipations 
on  going  to  England,  it  cannot  be  said  that  he  displayed  his  usual 
foresight,  for  he  rapidly  rose  to  a  position  of  wealth,  power  and 
esteem  there.  The  government  was  suffering  severely  from  lack 
of  information  on  conditions  in  America.  Sir  George  Germain, 
the  Colonial  Secretary  of  State,  in  their  first  interview  recognized 
the  knowledge  and  ability  of  this  young  man  of  twenty-three,  and 
gave  him  a  place  in  the  Colonial  Office,  admitting  him  as  a  mem- 
ber of  his  own  household. 

Science  was  never  to  Thompson  a  mental  divertisement,  but 
was  always  intimately  associated  with  his  daily  duties.  Since  he 
was  now  engaged  in  improving  the  military  efficiency  of  the  army, 
he  devoted  his  attention  to  the  study  of  the  action  of  gunpowder, 
"to  determine  the  most  advantageous  situation  for  the  vent  in 
fire-arms,  and  to  measure  the  velocities  of  bullets  and  the  recoil 
under  various  circumstances.  I  had  hopes,  also,  of  being  able  to 
find  out  the  velocity  of  the  inflammation  of  gunpowder,  and  to 
measure  its  force  more  accurately  than  had  hitherto  been  done." 

He  persistently  attacked  by  every  means  in  his  power  the  prob- 
lems of  explosives  which  Nobel,  Abel,  Berthelot,  and  Kellner  have 
in  recent  years  more  successfully  studied,  chiefly  along  the  lines 
indicated  by  him  and,  in  part,  using  his  apparatus.  He  laid  the 


1 8  LEADING  AMERICAN  MEN  OF  SCIENCE 

foundation  of  the  science  of  interior  ballistics  by  an  attempt  to 
measure  the  explosive  force  of  the  gases  produced  by  the  explo- 
sion of  gunpowder,  inventing  a  machine  which  has  ever  since 
been  known  as  "the  Rumford  Apparatus."  This  consisted  of  a 
small  steel  mortar  mounted  vertically  upon  a  bed  of  solid  masonry. 
The  J  inch  bore  was  closed  by  a  steel  hemisphere  upon  which 
weights  were  placed  and  these  increased  until  they  were  no  longer 
lifted  by  the  force  of  the  gunpowder  exploded.  To  avoid  loss  of 
energy  by  the  escape  of  gases  through  the  vent,  the  powder  was 
ignited  by  applying  a  red-hot  iron  ball  to  the  lower  end.  He 
gradually  increased  the  charge  of  powder,  until  an  8,000  pound 
cannon  had  to  be  used  as  a  weight  to  counterbalance  the  force  of 
the  explosion,  and  then  the  barrel  of  the  apparatus  burst  into 
halves.  His  numerical  results  were  too  high,  but  it  was  almost  a 
century  before  better  figures  were  obtained. 

Rumford's  earlier  experiments  in  England  were  mostly  directed 
to  the  problems  of  external  ballistics,  especially  to  the  determina- 
tion of  the  velocity  of  the  projectile  under  different  charges  and 
kinds  of  powders  and  methods  of  firing.  For  this  purpose  he  first 
made  use  of  the  ballistic  pendulum  invented  by  Robins.  The 
bullet  was  fired  into  a  wooden  target  backed  with  iron  and  sus- 
pended so  as  to  swing  back  freely  when  struck.  By  measuring 
the  chord  of  the  arc  of  its  swing  and  knowing  its  weight  and  that 
of  the  bullet,  the  velocity  of  the  bullet  could  be  calculated. 

Rumford  improved  upon  this  by  measuring  the  momentum  of 
the  gun  as  well  as  the  equal  momentum  of  the  bullet  by  suspend- 
ing the  gun  itself  as  a  pendulum  by  two  cords.  This  not  only 
gave  another  series  of  figures  as  a  check  to  the  former,  but  it  was 
more  accurate,  because  the  movement  of  a  large  mass  at  low 
velocity  can  be  more  easily  measured  than  of  a  small  mass  at  high 
velocity. 

In  his  later  experiments  in  Munich  he  discarded  the  pendulum 
target  and  measured  the  velocity  of  the  ball  solely  by  the  recoil 
of  the  gun,  experimenting  with  brass  cannon  as  large  as  twelve- 
pounders,  in  a  building  which  he  had  erected  for  the  purpose. 
He  was  never  content  with  laboratory  experiments,  and  to  con- 


BENJAMIN  THOMPSON,  COUNT  RUMFORD          19 

tinue  his  investigations  on  gunpowder,  he  volunteered  to  go  on  a 
cruise  of  the  British  fleet  under  Sir  Charles  Hardy,  in  1779.  As 
no  enemy  was  encountered,  he  persuaded  his  friends  among  the 
captains  "to  make  a  number  of  experiments,  and  particularly  by 
firing  a  greater  number  of  bullets  at  once  from  their  heavy  guns 
than  had  ever  been  done  before,  and  observing  the  distances  at 
which  they  fell  in  the  sea  ...  which  gave  me  much  new  light 
relative  to  the  action  of  fired  gunpowder." 

On  this  cruise  also  he  devised  a  simpler  and  more  systematic 
code  of  marine  signals  than  that  in  use.  Another  result  of  this 
three  months'  cruise  was  the  plan  of  a  swift  copper-sheathed  frigate. 

When,  on  account  of  overwork,  his  health  failed  and  he  went  to 
Bath  to  recuperate,  he  made  a  series  of  experiments  on  cohesion. 
These  experiments  introduced  him  to  Sir  Joseph  Banks,  President 
of  the  Royal  Society,  with  whom  he  was  afterwards  associated  in 
founding  the  Royal  Institution,  and  in  1779  he  was  elected  a 
Fellow  of  the  Royal  Society. 

Thompson  rose  rapidly  in  the  Colonial  Office,  where  he  became 
Secretary  for  Georgia,  inspector  of  all  the  clothing  sent  to  America, 
and  Under  Secretary  of  State.  About  the  time  of  the  fall  of  his 
patron,  Lord  Germain,  on  account  of  the  surrender  of  Cornwallis, 
he  returned  to  a  military  career,  and  was  made  Lieutenant-Colonel 
of  the  King's  American  Dragoons,  a  regiment  of  cavalry  which  he 
was  to  recruit  on  Long  Island.  His  ship,  however,  was  driven  by 
storms  to  Charleston,  South  Carolina,  where  he  reorganized  the 
remains  of  the  royal  army  under  Colonel  Leslie,  and  conducted 
a  successful  cavalry  raid  against  Marion's  Brigade. 

In  the  spring  he  arrived  at  Long  Island,  and  by  August  i,  1782, 
he  got  the  King's  American  Dragoons  in  shape  to  be  inspected  in 
their  camp  about  three  miles  east  of  Flushing  by  Prince  William 
Henry,  Duke  of  Clarence,  the  third  son  of  the  King,  and  after- 
wards King  William  the  Fourth.  The  royal  cause  was,  however, 
hopeless,  and  the  troops  under  Colonel  Thompson  did  nothing 
during  the  year  but  exasperate  the  patriots  among  whom  they 
were  quartered.  The  inhabitants  of  Long  Island  preserved  for 
more  than  one  generation  the  memory  of  their  depredations, 


20  LEADING  AMERICAN  MEN  OF  SCIENCE 

especially  the  destruction  of  a  church  and  burying-ground  in  the 
construction  of  a  fort  near  Huntington,  where  the  tombstones  were 
used  for  ovens  and  stamped  the  bread  with  their  inscriptions. 

Upon  his  return  to  England  after  the  disbandment  of  the 
British  forces,  Thompson  was  made  Colonel  on  half-pay  for  life, 
but  there  was  no  chance  to  make  use  of  his  military  talents  in 
the  British  service.  Accordingly  he  determined  to  seek  his  fortune 
elsewhere  and  September  17,  1783,  embarked  at  Dover  for  the 
continent.  Upon  the  same  boat  happened  to  be  Henry  Laurens, 
a  former  President  of  the  American  Congress,  recently  released 
from  the  Tower,  and  the  historian  Gibbon  who  in  his  letters  com- 
plains that  the  three  spirited  horses  of  "Mr.  Secretary,  Colonel, 
Admiral,  Philosopher  Thompson,"  added  to  the  distress  of  the 
Channel  passage. 

He  intended  to  go  to  Vienna  to  volunteer  in  the  Austrian  army 
against  the  Turks,  but  a  curious  chance  diverted  him  to  Bavaria 
where  he  spent  much  of  his  life  and  rose  to  the  highest  attain- 
able position.  Here  again,  as  in  New  Hampshire,  he  owed  the 
beginning  of  his  good  fortune  to  his  handsome  appearance  on 
horseback  at  a  military  parade.  At  Strasburg,  Prince  Maximilian 
of  Deux-Ponts,  afterwards  Elector  and  King  of  Bavaria,  but 
then  major-general  in  the  French  service,  while  reviewing  the 
troops  noticed  among  the  spectators  an  officer  in  a  foreign  uni- 
form, mounted  on  a  fine  English  horse,  and  spoke  to  him.  When 
Thompson  told  him  that  he  came  from  serving  in  the  American 
war,  the  Prince  replied  that  some  of  the  French  officers  in  his 
suite  must  have  fought  against  him,  pointing  to  the  French  of- 
ficers who  had  been  in  the  American  Army  at  Yorktown.  Be- 
coming interested  in  his  conversation,  the  Prince  invited  Colonel 
Thompson  to  dine  with  him  and  to  meet  his  late  foes.  At  the  table 
maps  were  produced  and  they  discussed  the  campaign  until  late, 
and  the  talk  was  resumed  on  the  following  day.  The  Prince  was 
so  taken  with  him  that  he  gave  him  a  cordial  letter  to  his  uncle, 
the  Elector  Palatine,  Reigning  Duke  of  Bavaria.  He  spent  five 
days  in  Munich  with  the  Elector  who  offered  him  such  induce- 
ments to  establish  himself  in  Bavaria  that,  after  visiting  Vienna 


BENJAMIN  THOMPSON,  COUNT  RUMFORD          21 

and  finding  that  there  was  to  be  no  war  against  the  Turks,  he 
returned  to  England  to  get  the  permission  necessary  for  a  British 
officer  to  enter  a  foreign  service.  George  the  Third  not  only 
granted  this,  but  also  conferred  upon  him  the  honor  of  knighthood 
on  February  23,  1784. 

Karl  Theodor,  Elector  Palatine,  had,  by  succeeding  to  Bavaria, 
become  the  greatest  prince  in  Germany,  except  the  Emperor 
and  the  King  of  Prussia.  Sir  Benjamin  Thompson  entered  his 
service  as  general  aide-de-camp  and  colonel  of  a  calvary  regi- 
ment. He  was  assigned  a  palace  in  Munich  with  a  military  staff 
and  servants. 

For  eleven  years  he  served  the  Elector  in  a  great  variety  of 
capacities,  military  and  civil,  and  carried  on  scientific  work  in 
lines  suggested  by  his  occupations.  Honors,  titles  and  decorations 
to  which  he  was  not  indifferent,  he  received  in  abundance  from 
rulers  and  academies  of  science.  The  laws  of  Bavaria  did  not 
permit  a  foreigner  to  receive  one  of  the  orders  of  that  country,  but, 
at  the  request  of  the  Elector,  the  King  of  Poland  in  1786  conferred 
upon  him  the  Order  of  St.  Stanislaus.  Two  years  later  he  was 
made  major-general  and  Privy  Councilor  and  Minister  of  War 
of  Bavaria.  In  1791  the  Elector  made  him  a  Count  of  the  Holy 
Roman  Empire  with  the  Order  of  the  White  Eagle.  He  chose  as 
his  new  name,  Rumford,  from  the  New  Hampshire  town  which  he 
had  entered  as  a  poor  schoolmaster  and  left  as  a  political  refugee. 

The  city  of  Munich  was  not  ungrateful  for  what  Count  Rum- 
ford  did  there.  While  he  was  in  England  the  people  erected  a 
monument  in  his  honor  in  the  park  still  known  as  "the  English 
Garden,"  which  he  had  reclaimed  from  a  waste  hunting-ground 
and  made  into  a  public  pleasure  resort.  The  inscription  reads: 

"To  Him  who  rooted  out  the  most  scandalous  of  public  evils, 
Idleness  and  Mendicity;  who  gave  to  the  poor  help,  occupation 
and  morals,  and  to  the  youth  of  the  Fatherland  so  many  schools 
of  culture.  Go,  Passer-by,  try  to  emulate  him  in  thought  and 
deed,  and  us  in  gratitude." 

A  bronze  statue  of  Count  Rumford  was  erected  in  Munich  by 
King  Maximilian  II  and  a  replica  of  it  costing  $7,500  has  been 


22  LEADING  AMERICAN  MEN  OF  SCIENCE 

placed  in  his  birthplace,  Woburn,  Mass.,  bearing  an  inscription 
by  President  Eliot  of  Harvard. 

Rumford  found  the  Bavarian  army  most  deficient  in  the  two 
arms  in  which  he  was  especially  interested,  cavalry  and  artillery, 
and  he  set  himself  to  remedy  the  former  by  establishing  a  veteri- 
nary school  and  introducing  improved  breeds  of  horses;  and  to 
develope  the  artillery  service  he  built  a  foundry  at  Munich  where 
guns  were  constructed  according  to  his  designs,  based  upon  care- 
ful experimentation.  He  adopted  the  method  of  casting  both  brass 
and  iron  cannon  solid  and  boring  them  afterwards,  and  it  was  while 
superintending  this  operation  that  he  made  the  observations 
which  led  to  his  greatest  discoveries,  that  heat  is  not  a  material 
substance  but  a  mode  of  motion,  and  that  there  is  a  definite 
quantitative  relation  between  mechanical  work  and  heat.  The 
"Inquiry  Concerning  the  Source  of  the  Heat  which  is  Generated 
by  Friction"  is  one  of  the  shortest  of  his  scientific  papers,  but  it 
would  be  hard  to  match  it  in  all  scientific  literature  for  originality 
of  conception,  importance  of  matter,  completeness  of  experimen- 
tal demonstration  and  clearness  of  expression.  Tyndall  quotes 
it  in  his  Heat  as  a  Mode  of  Motion  with  the  remark:  "Rumford 
in  this  memoir  annihilates  the  material  theory  of  heat.  Nothing 
more  powerful  on  the  subject  has  since  been  written." 

The  dominant  theory  of  the  time  was  that  heat  was  a  fluid  sub- 
stance, which  was  called  caloric,  held  in  the  pores  of  bodies  and 
squeezed  out  like  water  from  a  sponge,  when  they  were  hammered 
or  rubbed.  Rumford  was  led  to  question  this  by  observing  the 
large  amount  of  heat  continuously  generated  by  friction  in  the 
boring  of  his  cannon.  If,  he  reasoned,  heat  is  a  substance  that 
has  been  squeezed  out  of  the  metal,  then  the  powder  produced  by 
the  boring  must  have  less  heat  in  it  than  the  original  solid  metal, 
and  therefore  would  require  more  heat  to  raise  it  to  a  given  tem- 
perature. Accordingly,  he  tested  the  specific  heat  of  a  piece  of 
the  gun-metal  and  an  equal  weight  of  the  borings  with  his  calo- 
rimeter, and  found  that  equal  amounts  of  heat  raised  them  to  the 
same  temperature.  This  experiment  was  not  absolutely  conclu- 
sive, for  it  still  could  be  argued  that,  although  their  thermal  ca- 


BENJAMIN  THOMPSON,  COUNT  RUMFORD          23 

pacity  was  the  same  at  the  same  temperature,  they  might  have 
possessed  different  quantities  of  heat. 

Rumford's  next  step  was  to  determine  how  much  heat  was  pro- 
duced by  a  certain  amount  of  friction.  If  he  had  been  content 
with  mere  qualitative  results,  the  world  would  have  had  to  wait 
longer  for  the  law  of  the  conservation  of  energy,  but  he  had  the 
passion  of  the  true  scientist  to  express  everything  possible  in  defi- 
nite figures,  even  if  it  was  nothing  more  than  the  cost  of  pea-soup 
or  the  loss  of  heat  from  a  tea-kettle. 

The  apparatus  he  used  for  the  determination  of  this  most 
important  constant  of  nature,  the  relation  of  heat  to  work,  was  a 
brass  six-pounder  mounted  for  boring.  Into  the  short  cylinder 
of  metal  left  on  the  end  of  the  cannon  in  the  process  of  casting  a 
hole  3.7  inches  in  diameter  was  bored  to  a  depth  of  7.2  inches. 
Against  the  bottom  of  the  hole  a  blunt  iron  borer  was  held  by  a 
pressure  of  10,000  pounds  and  the  gun  was  turned  on  its  axis  by 
horse-power.  A  thermometer,  wrapped  in  flannel,  thrust  into  the 
hole  rose  to  130  °F.  after  960  revolutions.  The  weight  of  the  dust 
produced  by  the  borer  was  found  to  be  only  833  grains  Troy,  yet 
according  to  the  caloric  theory  this  small  amount  of  metal  must 
have  had  enough  heat  squeezed  out  of  it  to  raise  the  113  pounds 
of  gun-metal  70  °F. ! 

Next  he  fitted  a  box  containing  i8f  pounds  of  water  around 
the  cylinder,  and  in  two  hours  and  a  half  the  water  boiled. 

"It  would  be  difficult  to  describe  the  surprise  and  astonishment 
expressed  in  the  countenances  of  the  bystanders,  on  seeing  so 
large  a  quantity  of  cold  water  heated,  and  actually  made  to  boil 
without  any  fire.  Though  there  was,  in  fact,  nothing  that  could 
justly  be  considered  as  surprising  in  this  event,  yet  I  acknowledge 
fairly  that  it  afforded  me  a  degree  of  childish  pleasure,  which, 
were  I  ambitious  of  the  reputation  of  a  grave  philosopher,  I  ought 
most  certainly  rather  to  hide  than  to  discover." 

He  then  determined  by  experiment  how  much  heat  was  given 
off  in  burning  wax  candles,  and  calculated  that  it  would  require 
4.8  ounces  of  wax  to  heat  the  water  and  the  metal  to  the  same 
extent. 


24  LEADING  AMERICAN  MEN  OF  SCIENCE 

"From  the  result  of  these  computations  it  appears,  that  the 
quantity  of  heat  produced  equably,  or  in  a  continual  stream  (if  I 
may  use  that  expression)  by  the  friction"  in  this  experiment  was 
greater  than  that  produced  by  the  continuous  burning  of  nine 
wax  candles  each  f  inches  in  diameter. 

Finally  Rumford  takes  the  great  step  of  connecting  the  heat 
and  mechanical  work,  by  calculating  the  power  used  in  turning 
the  borer  and  producing  the  heat  by  friction.  The  relation  be- 
tween these  two  forces  of  energy,  or  the  dynamical  equivalent  of 
heat,  he  determined  as  847  foot-pounds,  that  is,  the  work  done  by 
raising  one  pound  weight  847  feet  will,  if  converted  into  heat, 
raise  the  temperature  of  one  pound  of  water  one  degree  Fahren- 
heit. Considering  when  it  was  done,  and  the  crudity  of  the  appara- 
tus, this  is  an  astonishingly  accurate  result,  for  it  is  only  about 
10%  above  the  figure  now  accepted,  779.  Forty-two  years  elapsed 
before  it  was  more  accurately  determined  by  Joule  as  772  foot- 
pounds. It  is  now  called  the  joule,  although  it  might  well  bear 
the  name  of  the  rumford  instead. 

As  an  example  of  the  way  Count  Rumford  sums  up  his  evidence 
and  draws  from  his  experiments  a  clear  and  logical  conclusion, 
the  closing  paragraphs  of  this  historic  paper  are  here  given.  It 
will  be  noted  that  his  language  is  so  simple  and  direct  that  the 
most  unscientific  reader  can  follow  his  demonstration  of  the  new 
theory. 

"By  meditating  on  the  results  of  all  these  experiments  we  are 
naturally  brought  to  that  great  question  which  has  so  often  been 
the  subject  of  speculation  among  philosophers;  namely, — What  is 
Heat?  Is  there  any  such  thing  as  an  igneous  fluid?  Is  there 
anything  that  can  with  propriety  be  called  caloric? 

"We  have  seen  that  a  very  considerable  quantity  of  Heat  may 
be  excited  by  the  friction  of  two  metallic  surfaces,  and  given  off  in 
a  constant  stream  or  flux  in  all  directions  without  interruption  or 
intermission,  and  without  any  signs  of  diminution  or  exhaustion. 

"From  whence  came  the  Heat  which  was  continually  given  off 
in  this  manner  in  the  foregoing  experiments?  Was  it  furnished 
by  the  small  particles  of  metal  detached  from  the  larger  solid 
masses  on  their  being  rubbed  together  ?  This,  as  we  have  already 
seen,  could  not  possibly  have  been  the  case. 


BENJAMIN  THOMPSON,  COUNT  RUMFORD          25 

"Was  it  furnished  by  the  air?  This  could  not  have  been  the 
case;  for,  in  three  of  the  experiments,  the  machinery  being  kept 
immersed  in  water,  the  access  of  the  air  of  the  atmosphere  was 
completely  prevented. 

"Was  it  furnished  by  the  water  which  surrounded  the  ma- 
chinery? That  this  could  not  have  been  the  case  is  evident:  first, 
because  this  water  was  continually  receiving  Heat  from  the  ma- 
chinery and  could  not  at  the  same  time  be  giving  to  and  receiving 
Heat  from  the  same  body;  and,  secondly,  because  there  was  no 
chemical  decomposition  of  any  part  of  this  water.  Had  any  such 
decomposition  taken  place  (which,  indeed,  could  not  reasonably 
have  been  expected),  one  of  its  component  elastic  fluids  (most 
probably  inflammable  air)  [hydrogen]  must  at  tbe  same  time  have 
been  set  at  liberty,  and,  in  making  its  escape  into  the  atmosphere, 
would  have  been  detected;  but,  though  I  frequently  examined  the 
water  to  see  if  any  air-bubbles  rose  up  through  it,  and  had  even 
made  preparations  to  examine  them,  if  any  should  appear,  I 
could  perceive  none;  nor  was  there  any  sign  of  decomposition  of 
any  kind  whatever,  or  other  chemical  process,  going  on  in  the 
water. 

"Is  it  possible  that  the  Heat  could  have  been  supplied  by  means 
of  the  iron  bar  to  the  end  of  which  the  blunt  steel  borer  was  fixed? 
or  by  the  small  neck  of  gun-metal  by  which  the  hollow  cylinder  was 
united  to  the  cannon  ?  These  suppositions  appear  more  improb- 
able even  than  either  of  those  before  mentioned;  for  Heat  was 
continually  going  off,  or  out  of  the  machinery  by  both  these  pas- 
sages, during  the  whole  time  the  experiment  lasted. 

"And,  in  reasoning  on  this  subject,  we  must  not  forget  to  con- 
sider that  most  remarkable  circumstance,  that  the  source  of  the 
Heat  generated  by  friction,  in  these  experiments,  appeared  evi- 
dently to  be  inexhaustible. 

"It  is  hardly  necessary  to  add,  that  anything  which  any  insu- 
lated body,  or  system  of  bodies,  can  continue  to  furnish  without 
limitation,  cannot  possibly  be  a  material  substance;  and  it  appears 
to  me  to  be  extremely  difficult,  if  not  quite  impossible,  to  form 
any  distinct  idea  of  anything  capable  of  being  excited  and  com- 
municated in  the  manner  the  Heat  was  excited  and  communi- 
cated in  these  experiments,  except  it  be  motion." 

One  more  surprising  instance  of  scientific  insight  this  brief 
paper  contains.  He  not  only  connects  heat,  light,  chemical  action 
and  mechanical  movement  together  as  capable  of  being  converted 
into  one  another,  but  boldly  extends  the  generalization  to  animal 


26  LEADING  AMERICAN  MEN  OF  SCIENCE 

life.  Since  the  horse  turned  the  cannon,  the  strength  of  a  horse 
can  be  made  to  produce  heat  without  fire,  light,  combustion  or 
chemical  decomposition,  and  this  heat,  he  characteristically  sug- 
gests, "  could  be  used  to  cook  victual  if  desired."  But  this  method 
of  producing  heat  would  be  disadvantageous,  "for  more  Heat 
might  be  obtained  by  using  the  fodder  necessary  for  the  support 
of  a  horse  as  fuel."  The  complete  demonstration  of  this  sugges- 
tion that  an  animal  can  be  considered  simply  as  one  form  of  heat 
engine  was  only  given  within  the  last  few  years  by  Professor 
Atwater,  by  his  experiments  with  a  calorimeter  large  enough  for 
a  man  to  live  in. 

Count  Rumford  possessed  in  a  high  degree  the  combination 
which,  unfortunately  for  the  world,  is  somewhat  rare,  of  executive 
ability  and  love  of  science.  Whatever  practical  work  he  was 
engaged  in,  he  at  once  sought  to  determine  its  philosophic  princi- 
ples, and,  these  discovered,  to  apply  them  to  the  task  at  hand. 
His  mind  turned  with  marvelous  rapidity  from  the  formulation 
of  a  natural  law  to  its  application  to  daily  life,  and  vice  versa. 
Almost  all  his  published  papers  show  this  peculiarity.  They 
usually  begin  by  telling  of  some  trivial  incident  or  accident  which 
directed  his  attention  to  the  want  of  information  on  the  subject, 
then  he  describes  his  experiments,  quantitative  as  far  as  possible, 
and  gives  the  theory  to  which  they  led  him,  closing  the  paper 
with  a  long  and  varied  list  of  speculative  deductions  and  possible 
applications.  We  may  take  up  any  of  his  essays  on  heat  with  the 
expectation  of  finding  in  it  somewhere  a  reference  to  the  needs  of 
the  poor,  a  proof  of  the  beneficence  of  the  Creator  and  directions 
for  cooking  soup,  and  we  shall  not  be  disappointed.  His  scientific 
papers  make,  therefore,  very  lively  reading,  even  for  unscientific 
readers,  on  account  of  their  wealth  of  topics  and  allusions,  their 
clear  style  and  their  portrayal  of  the  personal  characteristics  of 
an  interesting  man.  He  would  be  a  very  dull  person  and  extremely 
limited  in  his  tastes  who  could  turn  over  the  pages  of  the  four 
volumes  of  his  work,  published  by  the  American  Academy  of 
Arts  and  Science,  without  soon  finding  something  that  would  at- 
tract his  attention  and  give  him  helpful  ideas. 


BENJAMIN  THOMPSON,  COUNT  RUMFORD          27 

Because  the  occupations  and  experiences  of  Count  Rumford's 
life  were  remarkably  varied,  and  his  mind  was  incessantly  engaged 
in  philosophic  thought  concerning  them,  his  name  is  found  among 
the  founders  of  an  astonishingly  large  number  of  branches  of 
pure  applied  science.  No  one  can  write  the  history  of  the  develop- 
ment of  our  knowledge  of  heat,  light,  radiation,  convection,  cohe- 
sion, ballistics,  cooking,  fireplaces,  buildings,  clothing,  traction, 
bathing,  hospitals,  barracks,  glaciers,  meteorology,  conservation  of 
energy,  gravitation,  theory  of  colors,  or  lamps,  without  mention- 
ing Count  Rumford. 

The  popularity  which  Count  Rumford's  essays  obtained  was 
in  part  due  to  their  literary  style.  They  are  clear,  logical  and 
direct,  although  in  places  too  rhetorical  for  modern  taste.  He  is 
careful  to  give  the  exact  figures  and  observations  on  which  he 
bases  his  conclusions,  so  his  results  can  be  checked  and  recalcu- 
lated by  using  the  more  accurate  figures  that  have  been  obtained 
since. 

A  good  experiment  accurately  described  never  loses  its  value 
by  lapse  of  time.  Count  Rumford's  own  opinion  as  to  the  im- 
portance of  literary  style  in  scientific  work  is  given  in  these  words: 

"Too  much  pains  cannot  be  taken  by  those  who  write  books 
to  render  their  ideas  clear,  and  their  language  concise  and  easy 
to  be  understood.  Hours  spent  by  an  author  in  saving  minutes 
and  even  seconds  to  his  readers,  is  time  well  employed." 

Count  Rumford  could  have  found  no  situation  better  suited  to 
his  talents  and  tastes  than  this  in  Bavaria.  Here  he  could  play 
his  favorite  role  of  benevolent  despot  to  his  heart's  content.  The 
army  was  corrupt  and  inefficient;  the  country  was  poor,  wasted 
by  war  and  neglect,  the  cities  swarmed  with  beggars;  schools  were 
lacking;  there  were  more  convents  than  factories,  and  industry 
was  not  in  high  repute.  It  is  remarkable  that  so  bigoted  a  ruler 
as  the  Elector  Karl  Theodor  should  have  placed  such  confidence 
and  power  in  the  hands  of  an  avowed  Protestant  and  a  scien- 
tist, and  that  so  conservative  a  community  should  have  allowed  a 
foreigner  to  carry  out  radical  reforms  requiring  the  cooperation 


28  LEADING  AMERICAN  MEN  OF  SCIENCE 

and  good-will  of  large  numbers  of  people,  but  Rumford  had  in  a 
marked  degree  the  happy  faculty  of  winning  the  confidence  of 
both  superiors  and  subordinates.  Reformers  with  both  zeal  and 
tact,  such  as  he  possessed,  are  not  common  in  any  field  of  endeavor. 

Rumford's  first  work  with  the  army  was  to  rid  it  of  "  graft." 
The  officers  sold  outfits  to  the  recruits  on  credit,  and  ran  them 
each  year  deeper  in  debt,  for  the  allowance  for  food  and  clothing 
was  insufficient,  while  the  resulting  bickering  and  bargaining 
between  officer  and  soldier  were  destructive  of  discipline. 

Rumford's  first  criticism  was  that  the  officer  had  too  much  to 
do  with  his  men.  An  officer  should  not  be  at  once  commandant, 
trustee  and  merchant  in  his  company.  Next,  that  "it  is  not  only 
unwise  but  also  in  a  certain  sense  cruel  to  put  honest  men  in  a 
position  in  which  their  passions  can  be  excited  by  opportunity 
and  example."  He  saw,  too,  that  the  soldiers  kept  in  idleness  in 
barracks  degenerated,  and  when  they  were  quartered  in  farmers' 
houses  they  were  such  a  terror  to  the  country  that  the  people  paid 
them  to  stay  away.  The  soldier  despised  the  citizen,  and  the 
citizen  hated  th*e  soldier. 

To  obviate  this,  Rumford  determined  to  make  the  soldier  a 
citizen  and  to  put  him  in  a  condition  where  he  would  contribute 
to  the  wealth  and  welfare  of  the  country  instead  of  being  a  drain 
upon  it. 

To  do  this,  Count  Rumford  increased  the  pay  and  privileges 
of  the  soldiers,  improved  the  quarters,  and  cut  out  from  their 
drill  all  obsolete  and  dispensable  portions.  Schools  were  estab- 
lished in  all  the  regiments  for  instructing  the  soldiers  and  their 
children  in  reading,  writing  and  arithmetic,  and  all  books  and 
materials  were  furnished  gratis.  With  his  characteristic  economy, 
he  provided  that  the  paper  used  in  the  schools  should  be  after- 
wards made  into  cartridges,  so  it  cost  nothing.  The  soldiers  were 
employed  in  such  public  works  as  draining  marshes,  building 
dykes  and  making  roads;  the  military  bands,  that  he  introduced, 
playing  for  them  while  they  worked.  Military  gardens  were  pro- 
vided, and  each  soldier  on  enlistment  was  given  a  plot  of  ground, 
to  remain  in  his  possession  as  long  as  he  cultivated  it  and  kept  it 


BENJAMIN  THOMPSON,  COUNT  RUMFORD          29 

free  from  weeds;  seeds  and  garden  utensils  being  furnished  free. 
Rumford  justifies  this  on  the  ground  that  skill  in  the  use  of  the 
shovel  for  intrenching  can  be  obtained  by  digging  in  the  garden. 
They  were  permitted  to  sell  the  products,  and  received  pay  for  all 
their  work.  Rumford's  military  gardens  anticipated  our  Agri- 
cultural Experiment  Stations,  for  by  means  of  them  he  introduced 
new  varieties  of  crops  throughout  the  country.  When  a  soldier 
went  home  on  a  furlough,  he  took  with  him  a  collection  of  garden 
seeds  and  a  few  potatoes,  and  in  this  way  Rumford^id  for  Bavaria 
what  Parmentier  did  for 

leness  and  waste  were  the  two  great  evils  against  which  Count 
Rumford  fought  all  his  life.  A  beggar  and  a  lazy  soldier  were  his 
especial  detestations.  Having  put  the  soldiers  at  productive  work, 
Rumford  next  attacked  the  problem  of  poverty,  led  not  so  much, 
perhaps,  from  sentimental  love  of  his  fellow-men  as  by  his  innate 
hatred  of  waste,  whether  of  time  or  property.  A  very  large  pro- 
portion of  the  population  of  Bavaria  at  that  time  was  given  to 
begging.  Even  along  the  highways  in  the  country  almost  every 
person  one  met  on  foot  held  out  his  hand  for  alms,  and  in  the 
cities  professional  beggars  invaded  the  churches  and  houses,  and 
besieged  the  people  in  the  street,  exposing  loathsome  sores,  and 
exciting  sympathy  by  means  of  maimed  and  ill-used  children. 
Each  beggar  had  his  particular  beat  or  district,  and  vacancies 
were  eagerly  sought  for  and  fought  for.  Out  of  a  population  of 
60,000  in  Munich,  Rumford  found  2,600  beggars  and  indigent 
persons.  This  mendicancy  and  the  lying,  stealing,  vice  and  abuse 
of  children  resulting  from  it  Rumford  laid  to  the  injudicious  dis- 
pensation of  alms,  due  to  a  false  ideal  of  charity.  Instead  of 
punishment  or  moral  suasion  he  recommended  the  improvement 
of  conditions,  first,  by  providing  food  and  employment  for  every 
man,  woman  and  child.  Only  when  this  is  done  can  the  penalties 
against  vagrancy  be  enforced. 

Accordingly,  he  began  by  establishing  a  House  of  Industry  in 
Munich,  and,  then,  by  the  aid  of  soldiers  "rounded  up"  all  the 
beggars  in  the  city,  and  brought  them  to  the  large  and  handsome 
building  provided  for  them.  Here  they  were  given  such  work  as 


LEADING  AMERICAN  MEN  OF  SCIENCE 


they  could  do,  for  which  they  received  a  warm  dinner  and  pay- 
ment. Everything  possible  was  done  for  their  comfort  and  con- 
venience. The  workrooms  were  well  ventilated  and  lighted,  and 
pains  were  taken  to  give  the  edifice  an  air  of  elegance  as  well  as  of 
neatness  and  cleanliness.  In  the  passage  leading  to  the  paved 
court  was  an  inscription  in  letters  of  gold  upon  a  black  ground 
"No  alms  will  be  received  here."  Count  Rumford  gives  his  theory 
of  philanthropy  in  the  following  words: 


"When  preceptsfall^ habits  may  sometimes  be  successful.  To 
make  vicious  and  abandoned  people  happy,  it  has  generally  been 
supposed,  first,  to  make  them  virtuous.  But  why  not  reverse  this 
order!  Why  not  make  them  first  happy,  and  then  virtuous!  If 
happiness  and  virtue  be  inseparable,  the  end  will  be  as  certainly 
obtained  by  the  one  method  as  by  the  other;  and  it  is  most  un- 
doubtedly much  easier  to  contribute  to  the  happiness  and  com- 
fort of  persons  in  a  state  of  poverty  and  misery  than  by  admoni- 
tions and  punishment  to  reform  their  morals." 


The  House  of  Industry  was  chiefly  devoted  to  the  manufacture 
of  clothing  for  the  army  and  for  sale;  from  the  cording  and  spin- 
ning of  flax,  hemp,  cotton  and  wool  to  the  finished  garment;  and 
work  of  a  sort  suited  to  his  capacity  was  found  for  every  one,  from 
the  aged  and  infirm  to  the  youngest. 

Especial  attention  was  given  to  training  the  children  in  habits 
of  industry.  Even  with  them  Rumford  carried  out  his  plan  of 
avoiding  the  use  of  force.  Every  child  was  given  his  dinner  and 
his  three  kreutzers  a  day,  whether  he  worked  or  not,  but  the  chil- 
dren who  refused  to  work  were  compelled  to  sit  on  a  bench  and 
watch  their  companions  working,  until  they  cried  for  something 
to  do.  Then  they  were  given  light  spinning-wheels,  and  promoted 
and  publicly  rewarded  as  they  became  more  skilful.  Twice  a  day 
they  attended  school  in  the  same  building. 

The  financial  success  of  the  House  of  Industry  was  largely  due 
to  the  system  of  keeping  accounts  devised  by  Rumford,  very 
much  like  those  now  in  use  in  modern  manufactories.  "Lead  us 
not  into  temptation"  was  a  verse  of  Scripture  the  inspiration  of 
which  he  never  doubted,  and  he  was  strongly  of  the  opinion  that 


BENJAMIN  THOMPSON,  COUNT  RUMFORD          31 

the  best  way  to  keep  men  honest  was  tn  pyp  tlirnr  nn  rhinffl.fr  ***\ 
dishonest,  fevery  piece  of  yarn  transferred  from  one  room  to 
"""•"aTToTiEerT'every  loaf  of  stale  bread  collected  from  the  bakers  had 
to  be  duly  recorded  on  printed  blanks.  In  his  recommendations 
for  all  charitable  work  he  emphatically  insists  upon  strict  book- 
keeping and  publicity  of  accounts.  All  cases  of  relief  were  to  be 
listed  alphabetically. 

In  his  plans  for  systematic,  impersonal,  non-patronizing  and 
business-like  assistance  to  self-support,  Count  Rumford  antici- 
pated the  organized  charities  of  a  hundred  years  later,  but  in  the 
tact  with  which  he  secured  the  cooperation  of  the  whole  com- 
munity, including  the  authorities  of  army,  church  and  state, 
prominent  citizens  of  the  middle  classes,  and  the  poor  themselves, 
he  has  had,  unfortunately,  few  imitators.  In  five  years  he  practi- 
cally abolished  beggary  in  Bavaria,  and  converted  many  of  the 
former  mendicants  into  industrious  and  self-respecting  people. 
He  took  less  pride  in  his  decorations  and  titles  than  in  telling  that 
when  he  was  dangerously  sick  in  Munich,  he  was  awakened  by 
hearing  the  confused  noise  of  the  prayers  of  a  multitude  of  people 
who  were  passing  in  the  street,  and  was  told  that  it  was  the  poor 
of  Munich  who  were  going  to  the  church  to  put  up  public  prayers 
for  him,  "a  private  person,  a  stranger,  a  Protestant." 

Rumford  was  able  to  carry  out  his  plan  of  providing  free  dinners 
to  all  who  needed  them  by  turning  his  inventive  genius  to  the 
subject  of  cooking,  and  making  the  first  scientific  study  of  cheap 
and  nutritious  diet  and  the  economical  management  of  heat.  His 
specialty  was  a  rich  soup  made  of  peas  and  barley,  into  which  he 
afterwards  introduced  potatoes,  surreptitiously,  because  of  the 
popular  prejudice  against  them.  The  secret  of  its  preparation 
lay  in  cooking  for  over  four  hours  at  a  low  temperature,  and  by 
his  skilful  contrivances  in  the  kitchen  three  women  did  the  cook- 
ing for  a  thousand  persons.  A  pound  and  a  half  of  soup,  with 
seven  ounces  of  rye  bread  cost  only  one  cent.  He  shows  what  a 
great  loss  of  heat  occurs  in  cooking  by  the  ordinary  methods,  which 
unfortunately  are  still  in  use.  In  particular  he  objected  to  rapid 
boiling  which,  as  he  says,  cannot  raise  the  temperature  above  the 


32  LEADING  AMERICAN  MEN  OF  SCIENCE 

boiling-point,  but  uses  more  than  five  times  as  much  heat  as  is 
necessary  to  heat  the  same  quantity  of  water  from  the  freezing- 
point,  and  at  the  same  time  destroys  the  taste  by  carrying  off  the 
volatile  flavors.  His  cooking  was  done  in  closed  vessels,  covered 
with  wood  or  some  other  non-conducting  material,  to  prevent  the 
radiation  of  heat,  in  fact  constructed  on  the  same  principle  as  the 
calorimeter  he  employed  for  scientific  research.  All  these  lessons 
Mr.  Edward  Atkinson  and  others  have  been  vainly  trying  to  teach 
us  in  recent  years.  The  "  fireless  cooker"  now  coming  into  use  is  a 
belated  application  of  Rumford's  idea. 

To  obviate  the  great  waste  of  heat  in  roasting  on  a  spit  before 
an  open  fire,  he  invented  the  sheet  iron  oven  known  as  the  "Rum- 
ford  roaster."  A  dripping-pan  filled  with  water  prevented  the 
decomposition  of  the  fat  by  the  high  temperature,  and  the  flues 
were  arranged  so  that  a  blast  of  hot  air  could  be  passed  over  the 
meat  to  brown  it  when  it  was  cooked. 

In  1795,  after  eleven  years  in  Munich,  Rumford  returned  to 
England  for  the  purpose  of  publishing  his  essays  on  heat  and  its 
utilization,  and  on  public  institutions  for  the  poor.  He  was  then 
at  the  height  of  his  renown  as  scientist  and  philanthropist,  and 
was  everywhere  received  with  great  honor.  In  England  and  Ire- 
land he  assisted  in  the  establishment  of  soup-kitchens  and  work- 
houses, and  introduced  into  public  institutions  his  system  of  heat- 
ing and  cooking  by  steam.  Models  of  his  fireplaces,  stoves  and 
cooking  utensils  were  placed  on  exhibition  for  workmen  to  copy, 
for  he  always  refused  to  take  out  patents  on  his  inventions.  He 
writes  that  at  this  time  he  "had  not  less  than  five  hundred  smok- 
ing chimneys  on  my  hands"  in  public  and  private  buildings, 
many  of  them  chronic  and  thought  incurable.  The  great  waste 
of  heat  in  the  old-fashioned  fireplace  shocked  his  economical 
nature,  and  he  studied  the  scientific  principles  involved,  in  order 
to  check  the  excessive  consumption  of  fuel,  increase  the  radiation 
in  the  room,  and  prevent  loss  of  fuel  in  the  smoke.  He  proved 
the  best  possible  proportions  for  the  chimney  recess  of  the  open 
fireplace  to  be  that  the  width  of  the  back  should  equal  the  depth 
from  front  to  back  and  that  the  width  of  the  front  should  be 


BENJAMIN  THOMPSON,  COUNT  RUMFORD          33 

three  times  the  width  of  the  back,  a  rule  which  is  followed  to  this 
day.  By  making  the  angle  of  the  sides  of  the  fireplace  45°,  the 
greatest  possible  amount  of  heat  was  reflected  into  the  room.  He 
recommended  the  use  of  fire-clay  instead  of  metal  and  of  clay  fire- 
balls to  insure  complete  combustion  and  increase  the  radiating 
surface.  Refuse  coal-dust  was  made  into  briquettes.  His  chief 
improvement  consisted  in  the  reduction  of  the  size  of  the  chimney 
throat  and  in  rounding  off  the  edge  of  the  chimney  breast.  Since 
a  room  is  warmed  from  the  walls,  and  not  by  radiant  heat  passing 
through  the  air,  this  work  involved  a  study  of  the  radiating  power 
of  different  surfaces  and  materials,  and  proceeding  from  the  fact 
smoke  is  pushed  up,  not  drawn  up  the  chimney,  he  was  led  to 
make  extensive  investigations  in  the  theory  of  ventilation. 

As  it  was  hopeless  to  make  the  open  fireplace  an  economical 
heater,  he  turned  his  attention  to  the  construction  of  cooking 
ranges  and  to  the  utilization  of  waste  heat  of  smoke  and  steam. 
In  the  Bavarian  House  of  Industry  he  passed  the  smoke  from  the 
cooking  ranges  through  copper  pipes  in  a  wooden  cask,  and  used 
it  for  cooking  his  pea-soup.  From  his  experience  he  calculated 
that  the  private  kitchen  expends  ten  times  as  much  fuel  as  the 
public  kitchen. 

The  progress  of  the  century  since  then  has  been  along  the  lines 
indicated  by  Rumford.  The  range  has  been  instituted  for  the 
fireplace,  closed  and  jacketed  vessels  are  employed  for  cooking, 
steam-pipes  are  used  for  heating  buildings,  and  the  utilization  of 
waste  heat  has  become  a  factor  of  recognized  importance  in  fac- 
tory management.  The  first  range  built  in  this  country  in  con- 
formity with  Rumford's  principle  was  constructed  under  the  di- 
rection of  Pyflfessnr  John  Kemp  of  Columbia  College  in  1708. 

The  question  of  suitable  covering  for  steam-pipes  ~use3  for 
heating  rooms  required  for  its  solution  a  knowledge  of  radiation 
from  different  surfaces,  and  in  this  field  Rumford  did  some  ex- 
cellent original  work.  In  these  experiments  he  used  two  cylindri- 
cal vessels  of  thin  sheet  brass  filled  with  warm  water  and  covered 
with  whatever  coating  or  covering  he  wished  to  test.  To  deter- 
mine which  radiated  heat  the  faster,  he  constructed  a  "thermo- 


34  LEADING  AMERICAN  MEN  OF  SCIENCE 

scope"  or  differential  thermometer,  consisting  of  a  closed  glass 
tube  with  the  bulbs  at  each  end  turned  up.  In  the  middle  was  a 
drop  of  colored  alcohol  which  moved  in  one  direction  or  the  other 
when  the  bulbs  were  unequally  heated.  When  he  held  a  cylinder 
filled  with  warm  water  and  blackened  on  the  bottom  over  one 
bulb,  and  a  cylinder  with  water  at  the  same  temperature  and 
bright  on  the  bottom  over  the  other,  the  drop  of  alcohol  moved 
instantly  away  from  the  blackened  surface,  showing  that  it  emitted 
heat  more  rapidly  at  the  same  temperature.  By  moving  the  cyl- 
inder back  and  forth  until  the  drop  remained  at  rest,  their  relative 
distances  gave  data  for  calculating  their  relative  radiating  power. 
All  metals,  he  found,  gave  off  heat  at  the  same  rate,  and  he  asks: 
"Does  not  this  afford  a  strong  presumption  that  heat  is  in  all 
cases  excited  and  communicated  by  means  of  radiations,  or 
undulations,  as  I  should  rather  choose  to  call  them  ?  " 

His  theory  of  heat  is  so  clearly  expressed  and  anticipates  in 
so  many  respects  our  modern  ideas,  that  it  is  worth  quoting  as  an 
example  of  the  use  of  the  scientific  imagination. 

"No  reasonable  objection  against  this  hypothesis  (of  the  in- 
cessant motions  of  the  constituent  particles  of  all  bodies)  founded 
on  a  supposition  that  there  is  not  room  sufficient  for  these  motions, 
can  be  advanced;  for  we  have  abundant  reason  to  conclude  that 
if  there  be  in  fact  any  indivisible  solid  particles  of  matter  (which, 
however,  is  very  problematical)  these  particles  must  be  so  ex- 
tremely small,  compared  to  the  spaces  they  occupy,  that  there 
must  be  ample  room  for  all  kinds  of  motion  among  them. 

"And  whatever  the  nature  or  directions  of  these  internal  mo- 
tions may  be,  among  the  constituent  particles  of  a  solid  body,  as 
long  as  these  constituent  particles,  in  their  motions,  do  not  break 
loose  from  the  systems  to  which  they  belong  (and  to  which  they 
are  attached  by  gravitation)  and  run  wild  in  the  vast  void  by 
which  each  system  is  bounded  (which,  as  long  as  the  known  laws 
of  nature  exist,  is  no  doubt  impossible)  the  form  or  external  ap- 
pearance of  a  solid  cannot  be  sensibly  changed  by  them. 

"But  if  the  motions  of  the  constituent  particles  of  any  solid 
body  be  either  increased  or  diminished,  in  consequence  of  the 
actions  or  radiations  of  other  distant  bodies,  this  event  could  not 
happen  without  producing  some  visible  change  in  the  solid  body. 

"If  the  motions  of  its  constituent  particles  were  diminished  by 


BENJAMIN  THOMPSON,  COUNT  RUMFORD          35 

these  radiations,  it  seems  reasonable  to  conclude  that  their  elon- 
gations would  become  less,  and  consequently  that  the  volume  of 
the  body  would  be  contracted;  but  if  the  motions  of  these  particles 
were  increased,  we  might  conclude,  a  priori,  that  the  volume  of 
the  body  would  be  expanded. 

"We  have  not  sufficient  data  to  enable  us  to  form  distinct  ideas 
of  the  nature  of  the  change  which  takes  place  when  a  solid  body  is 
melted;  but  as  fusion  is  occasioned  by  heat,  that  is  to  say,  by  an 
augmentation  (from  without)  of  that  action  which  occasions  ex- 
pansion, if  expansion  be  occasioned  by  an  increase  of  the  motions 
of  the  constituent  particles  of  the  body,  it  is,  no  doubt,  a  certain 
additional  increase  of  those  motions  which  causes  the  form  of  the 
body  to  be  changed,  and  from  a  solid  to  become  a  fluid  substance. 

"As  long  as  the  constituent  particles  of  a  solid  body  which  are 
at  the  surface  of  that  body  do  not,  in  their  motions,  pass  by  each 
other,  the  body  must  necessarily  retain  its  form  or  shape,  however 
rapid  those  motions  or  vibrations  may  be;  but  as  soon  as  the  mo- 
tion of  these  particles  is  so  augmented  that  they  can  no  longer  be 
restrained  or  retained  within  these  limits,  the  regular  distribution 
of  the  particles  which  they  required  in  crystallization  is  gradually 
destroyed,  and  the  particles  so  detached  from  the  solid  mass  form 
new  and  independent  systems,  and  become  a  liquid  substance. 

"Whatever  may  be  the  figures  of  the  orbits  which  the  particles 
of  a  liquid  describe,  the  mean  distances  of  those  particles  from 
each  other  remain  nearly  the  same  as  when  they  constituted  a 
solid,  as  appears  by  the  small  change  of  specific  gravity  which 
takes  place  when  a  solid  is  melted  and  becomes  a  liquid;  and  on 
a  supposition  that  their  motions  are  regulated  by  the  same  laws 
which  regulate  the  solar  system,  it  is  evident  that  the  additional 
motion  they  must  necessarily  acquire,  in  order  to  their  taking  the 
fluid  form,  cannot  be  lost,  but  must  continue  to  reside  in  the  liquid, 
and  must  again  make  its  appearance  when  the  liquid  changes  its 
form  and  becomes  a  solid. 

"It  is  well  known  that  a  certain  quantity  of  heat  is  required  to 
melt  a  solid,  which  quantity  disappears  or  remains  latent  in  the 
liquid  produced  in  that  process,  and  that  the  same  quantity  of 
heat  reappears  when  this  liquid  is  congealed  and  becomes  a  solid 
body." 

From  this  disquisition  on  molecular  physics  he  at  once  draws 
the  practical  conclusion  that  a  saucepan  ought  to  be  smoked  on 
the  bottom  and  bright  on  the  sides  in  order  to  absorb  and  retain 
the  greatest  amount  of  heat.  Stoves  ought  not  be  polished,  but 


36  LEADING  AMERICAN  MEN  OF  SCIENCE 

are  better  rusted.    Steam-pipes  used  for  heating  rooms  should  be 
painted  or  covered  with  paper. 

He  then  considers  the  question  of  why  negroes  are  black  and 
arctic  animals  white,  and  goes  so  far  in  these  speculations  as  to 
lose  sight  of  his  own  experiments  which  proved  that  color  made 
no  practical  difference  in  the  radiation  and  absorption  of  heat. 

"All  I  will  venture  to  say  on  the  subject  is,  that  were  I  called 
to  inhabit  a  very  hot  country,  nothing  should  prevent  me  from 
making  the  experiment  of  blackening  my  skin,  or  at  least  wearing 
a  black  shirt  in  the  shade  and  especially  at  night,  in  order  to  find 
out,  if  by  those  means,  I  could  not  continue  to  make  myself  more 
comfortable." 

Nothing  in  fact  did  prevent  him,  not  the  criticisms  of  his  friends, 
the  remonstrances  of  his  wife  or  the  jeers  of  the  street  gamins, 
from  wearing  a  complete  suit  of  white  clothes  from  hat  to  shoes, 
on  Paris  streets  as  a  demonstration  of  their  superiority  over  black 
clothing. 

Rumford  says  he  considers  his  researches  on  clothing  "by  far 
the  most  fortunate  and  the  most  important  I  ever  made,"  because 
they  contribute  to  health  and  comfort  of  life.  With  this  practical 
object  in  view,  he  devoted  many  years  to  experiments  on  the  propa- 
gations of  heat  through  solids,  liquids  and  gases,  and  attained 
very  clear  ideas  of  the  three  ways  in  which  heat  travels,  by  direct 
radiation,  by  conduction  from  particle  to  particle,  and  by  convec- 
tion or  currents  of  heated  particles.  These  experiments  were 
made  by  thermometers  with  the  bulb  sealed  into  the  center  of  a 
large  glass  bulb.  The  space  between  the  outer  bulb  and  the  ther- 
mometer of  two  of  these  instruments  being  filled  with  the  sub- 
stances to  be  compared,  they  were  taken  from  boiling  water  and 
plunged  into  ice-cold  water  or  vice  versa,  and  the  rate  of  change 
of  the  thermometer  noted.  In  this  way  he  determined  that  moist 
air  is  a  better  conductor  of  heat  than  dry.  Thus  he  explains 
"why  the  thermometer  is  not  always  a  just  measure  of  the  ap- 
parent or  sensible  heat  of  the  atmosphere,"  and  why  colds  prevail 
during  autumnal  rains  and  spring  thaws,  and  why  it  is  so  danger- 
ous to  sleep  in  damp  beds  and  live  in  damp  houses,  and  he  takes 


BENJAMIN  THOMPSON,  COUNT  RUMFORD         37 

occasion,  as  usual,  to  pay  a  few  compliments  to  Divine  Providence 
for  so  arranging  it  that  cold  air  shall  contain  less  moisture  than 
warm. 

He  exhausted  the  air  from  the  space  surrounding  the  ther- 
mometer in  one  of  these  double-walled  apparatus  by  fastening 
the  bulb  on  the  upper  end  of  a  barometer  tube,  and  discovered 
that  through  such  a  Torricellian  vacuum  heat  passes  with  greater 
difficulty  than  through  the  air.  It  was  by  means  of  this  double- 
walled  vacuum  apparatus,  silvered  on  the  internal  surfaces  as 
recommended  by  Rumford,  to  prevent  the  radiation  of  heat,  that 
Professor  Dewar  a  hundred  years  later  was  enabled  to  experiment 
with  liquified  air  and  hydrogen  in  the  Royal  Institution  which 
Rumford  founded.  Bottles,  jacketed  with  a  vacuum  as  Rumford 
suggested,  are  now  in  use  to  provide  automobilists  with  hot  and 
cold  drinks. 

In  the  same  way  he  tested  the  relative  conductivity  for  heat  of 
a  layer  of  fur,  wool,  silk,  cotton,  linen  and  many  other  substances, 
and  found  that  heat  does  not  pass  from  particle  to  particle  of  the 
air  (conduction),  but  by  currents  (convection),  and  that  such 
fibrous  bodies  as  cloth  and  fur  are  poor  conductors  of  heat,  be- 
cause the  air  in  their  interstices  is  prevented  from  circulating. 
Recent  researches  on  adsorption  have  proved  that  he  was  right 
in  the  importance  he  attached  to  the  "cast"  or  layer  of  air  which 
is  held  so  firmly  to  the  surface  of  the  fibers  that  it  is  very  difficult 
to  remove.  He  applies  the  principle  he  had  discovered  in  the 
explanation  of  why  bears  and  wolves  have  thicker  fur  on  their 
backs  than  on  their  bellies,  and  how  the  snow  protects  the  ground. 

By  exposing  dry  cloths,  fur  and  down  on  china  plates  in  a  damp 
cellar  and  then  reweighing  them,  he  determined  the  quality  of 
moisture  they  absorbed  from  the  atmosphere,  and,  finding  that 
wool  absorbed  most,  he  determined  to  wear  flannel  next  to  the 
skin  in  all  seasons  and  climates;  a  deduction  of  doubtful  validity. 

The  important  researches  he  conducted  on  convection  owed 
their  origin  to  the  fact  that  he  was  brought  up  in  "the  Great  Pie 
Belt."  Like  other  New  England  boys  he  was  much  struck  with 
the  length  of  time  it  took  for  an  apple-pie  to  get  cool  enough  to  eat. 


38  LEADING  AMERICAN  MEN  OF  SCIENCE 

"and  I  never  burnt  my  mouth  with  them,  or  saw  others  meet  with 
the  same  misfortune,  without  endeavoring,  but  in  vain,  to  find 
out  some  way  of  accounting  in  a  satisfactory  manner  for  this 
surprising  phenomenon." 

Having  in  later  life  burnt  his  mouth,  this  time  on  a  spoonful  of 
thick  rice  soup  with  which  he  was  feeding  himself  while  watching 
an  experiment,  he  determined  to  settle  the  question.  Accordingly 
he  made  some  apple-sauce,  and  filling  with  it  the  jacket  of  his 
double-walled  thermometer,  he  found  that  it  required  twice  as 
many  seconds  to  cool  as  when  the  jacket  was  filled  with  water. 
Next  he  evaporated  the  apple-sauce,  dried  the  fiber  and  found 
that  apple-sauce  was  98  per  cent  water.  So  small  an  amount  of 
solid  matter  could  not  interfere  with  the  transmission  of  heat 
through  the  water,  except  by  hindering  the  circulation  of  the  water. 
He  deduces  from  this  that  the  reason  why  animals  and  plants  do 
not  more  easily  freeze  during  the  winter  is  because  sap  and  animal 
fluids  are  thick  and  viscid,  and  also  are  prevented  from  circulating 
freely  by  the  cell  walls.  By  heating  a  glass  cylinder  (test-tube) 
containing  a  powder  suspended  in  water,  he  was  able  to  see  the 
warm  currents  ascending  on  one  side  and  the  cold  currents  de- 
scending on  the  other,  and  to  demonstrate  that  heat  is  not  con- 
ducted in  liquids  equally  in  all  directions  as  it  is  in  solids,  but  by 
rising  currents  due  to  the  expansion  of  the  liquid  by  heat.  He 
found  to  his  surprise  that  he  was  able  to  boil  water  in  the  upper 
part  of  the  tube  while  holding  the  lower  part  in  his  hand,  and  that 
a  cake  of  ice  fastened  at  the  bottom  of  the  tube  filled  with  boiling 
water  required  hours  to  melt,  while  one  at  the  top  melted  in  a  few 
minutes.  From  these  and  many  similar  experiments  he  was  led 
to  the  conclusions  that  air,  water  and  all  fluids  are  non-conductors 
of  heat,  and  that  heat  cannot  be  propagated  downwards  in  liq- 
uids as  long  as  they  continue  to  be  condensed  by  cold. 

He  shows  that  life  on  this  globe  would  be  impossible  if  it  were 
not  for  the  fact  that  water  by  cooling  from  about  40°  F.  to  32°  F. 
expands  instead  of  contracts,  for  if  ice  were  heavier  than  water  it 
would  sink  to  the  bottom,  and  all  lakes  would  be  frozen  solid  and 
not  melted  during  the  summer. 


BENJAMIN  THOMPSON,  COUNT  RUMFORD         39 

"It  does  not  appear  to  me  that  there  is  anything  which  human 
sagacity  can  fathom  within  the  wide-extended  bounds  of  the  vis- 
ible creation  which  affords  a  more  striking  or  more  palpable  proof 
of  the  wisdom  of  the  Creator,  and  of  the  special  care  he  has  taken 
in  the  general  arrangement  of  the  universe  to  preserve  life,  than 
this  wonderful  contrivance," 

that  water  forms  the  only  exception  to  the  universal  law  that  all 
bodies  are  condensed  by  cold. 

"If,  among  barbarous  nations,  the  fear  of  a  God  and  the  prac- 
tice of  religious  duties  tend  to  soften  savage  dispositions  and  to 
prepare  the  mind  for  all  those  sweet  enjoyments  which  result  from 
peace,  order,  industry,  and  friendly  intercourse,  a  belief  in  the  ex- 
istence of  a  Supreme  Intelligence,  who  rules  and  governs  the  uni- 
verse with  wisdom  and  goodness,  is  not  less  essential  to  the  hap- 
piness of  those  who,  by  cultivating  their  mental  powers,  have 
learned  to  know  how  little  can  be  known" 

This  sentence,  from  its  style  and  mode  of  thought,  its  uncon- 
scious arrogance  and  ostentatious  modesty,  is  so  characteristic  of 
its  age  that  it  could  be  dated  with  considerable  certainty,  even  if 
found  on  a  loose  leaf.  The  more  thorough  study  of  the  nature  of 
the  last  hundred  years  has  shown  that  the  conception  of  the 
"Great  Architect  of  the  Universe"  given  in  the  natural  theology 
of  that  day  must  be  either  abandoned  as  inadequate  or  enlarged 
to  a  more  comprehensive  ideal  of  creative  wisdom.  Rumford  is, 
of  course,  wrong  in  thinking  that  water  is  the  only  exception  to 
the  general  rule  that  heat  expands  and  cold  contracts.  Bismuth, 
cast-iron,  type-metal  and  most  alloys  expand  on  solidifying,  and 
this  also  is  of  benefit  to  mankind,  for  without  this  property  it 
would  be  impossible  to  make  good  castings. 

During  the  year  Rumford  spent  in  England  he  gave  $5,000  to 
the  Royal  Society  of  London,  and  a  like  sum  to  the  American 
Academy  of  Arts  and  Sciences,  the  interest  to  be  given  every  two 
years  as  a  premium  to  the  person  who  made  the  most  important 
discovery  or  useful  improvement  on  heat  or  light,  "as  shall  tend 
most  to  promote  the  good  of  mankind."  The  Rumford  Medal  of 
the  Royal  Society  has  been  regularly  awarded  every  two  years  to 


40  LEADING  AMERICAN  MEN  OF  SCIENCE 

the  most  distinguished  scientists  of  Europe  and  America,  beginning 
in  1802  with  Rumford  himself.  The  American  Academy,  on  the 
contrary,  found  the  plan  "absolutely  impracticable"  and,  for 
forty-three  years  during  which  very  great  progress  was  made  in 
the  knowledge  of  light  and  heat,  and  especially  in  such  practical 
applications  as  improved  stoves  and  lamps  which  Rumford  espe- 
cially favored,  no  award  was  made.  The  fund  by  1829  had  grown 
so  large  that  the  courts  were  called  upon  to  allow  the  money  to 
be  expended  for  the  promotion  of  science  in  other  ways,  such  as 
lectures,  books  and  apparatus.  Count  Rumford  seems  to  have 
changed  his  mind  as  to  the  value  of  this  method  of  promoting  the 
advancement  of  science,  for  when  he  founded  the  Royal  Institu- 
tion a  few  years  later  he  expressly  prohibited  all  premiums  and 
rewards.  The  Rumford  Fund  of  the  American  Academy  now 
amounts  to  $58,722,  and  gives  an  annual  income  of  more  than 
half  the  original  gift,  which  is  expended  for  the  furtherance  of 
researches  in  heat  and  light. 

Before  leaving  England  in  1797  Count  Rumford  was  joined  by 
his  daughter  whom  he  had  left  an  infant  in  America  twenty-two 
years  before.  His  wife  had  died  five  years  before  at  the  age  of 
fifty-two.  Many  of  the  letters  of  his  daughter  are  printed  in 
Ellis's  Life  of  Count  Rumford,  and  give  an  interesting  picture  of 
society  at  the  Bavarian  court  as  seen  by  the  New  England  girl, 
as  well  as  a  self-revelation  of  the  transformation  of  Sally  Thomp- 
son into  Sarah,  Countess  of  Rumford.  She  expected  to  find  her 
father  dark  in  complexion,  for  her  childish  impressions  had  been 
formed  from  the  only  portrait  her  mother  had  of  him,  a  silhouette 
profile.  Her  mother  had  told  her  that  he  had  " carroty"  hair, 
whereas  she  found  it  "a  very  pretty  color."  He  had  bright  blue 
eyes  and  a  sweet  smile.  Dr.  Young  of  the  Royal  Institution  says, 
"in  person  he  was  above  middle  size,  of  a  dignified  and  pleasing 
expression  of  countenance  and  a  mildness  in  his  manner  and  tone 
of  voice."  In  disposition,  however,  he  was  authoritative  and 
dictatorial.  Always  a  brilliant  conversationalist,  he  was  inclined 
in  his  later  years  to  monopolize  the  table  talk,  and  he  made  him- 
self unpopular  by  promptly  correcting,  from  his  wide  experience 


BENJAMIN  THOMPSON,  COUNT  RUMFORD          4! 

and  remarkable  memory,  any  misstatements  of  detail  made  by  a 
member  of  the  company.  He  spoke  English,  French,  German, 
Spanish  and  Italian  fluently,  and  published  scientific  papers  in 
the  three  first-named  languages.  He  was  punctilious  in  etiquette, 
nice  in  dress  and  fond  of  titles  and  decorations.  Throughout  his 
life  he  was  unduly  popular  with  the  ladies. 

In  early  life  he  practiced  music  and  he  sketched  his  own  inven- 
tions, but  had  no  taste  for  painting,  sculpture  or  poetry.  He  took 
pleasure  in  landscape  gardening,  but  knew  nothing  of  botany. 
His  favorite  games  were  billiards  and  chess,  but  he  rarely  played 
the  latter  because  his  feet  became  like  ice.  He  was  very  abste- 
mious in  eating,  partly  from  theory,  partly  on  account  of  his  poor 
health.  He  never  drank  anything  but  water. 

In  spite  of  a  tendency  toward  display  and  a  liking  for  elegance 
in  housing  and  habit,  he  was  very  careful  in  his  expenditures  and 
strict  in  his  accounts.  He  allowed  no  object  to  remain  out  of  place 
after  he  had  used  it,  and  he  was  never  late  to  an  appointment. 
Cuvier  in  his  eulogy  says  he  worshiped  "order  as  a  sort  of  subor- 
dinate deity,  regulator  of  this  lower  world."  "He  permitted  him- 
self nothing  superfluous,  not  a  step,  not  a  word;  and  he  intrepreted 
the  word  'superfluous'  in  its  strictest  sense." 

Count  Rumford  on  his  return  to  Munich  with  his  daughter 
after  a  year  in  England  found  himself  placed  in  a  position  of  great 
responsibility  and  difficulty.  By  the  defection  of  Prussia  the 
burden  of  resistance  to  the  victorious  armies  of  the  French  repub- 
lic had  been  thrown  upon  the  Austrians  who  were  unable  to 
make  a  stand  against  the  advance  of  Moreau.  A  week  after  his 
arrival  the  Elector  fled  from  Munich  and  took  refuge  in  Saxony, 
leaving  Count  Rumford  at  the  head  of  the  Council  of  Regency. 
After  their  defeat  at  Friedberg,  the  Austrians  under  Latour 
retreated  to  Munich,  closely  followed  by  the  French,  and  de- 
manded admittance  to  the  city.  This  Rumford  refused  to  grant, 
and  when  General  Moreau  arrived  with  the  French  army,  he  also 
kept  them  out  of  the  city  by  the  promise  of  supplies  and  the 
withdrawal  of  the  Bavarian  contingent.  Since  Count  Rumford 
was  now  in  command  of  the  Bavarian  troops  crowded  into  the 


42  LEADING  AMERICAN  MEN  OF  SCIENCE 

city  and  camped  in  the  public  places,  he  improved  the  opportu- 
nity to  introduce  regimental  cooking  stoves  made  of  sheet  copper 
and  fire-brick,  similar  to  those  now  used  in  military  campaigns. 

When  Moreau  retreated  the  Elector  returned,  and  Rumford 
was  rewarded  for  his  services  in  this  emergency  by  being  placed 
at  the  head  of  the  Department  of  General  Police,  and  soon  after 
by  being  appointed  Minister  Plenipotentiary  from  Bavaria  to 
Great  Britain.  He  thus  left  Munich  for  London,  but  the  British 
Government  held  that  it  was  altogether  impossible  to  receive  as 
the  representative  of  a  foreign  Power,  even  of  so  close  an  ally  as 
Bavaria,  one  who  was  a  British  subject,  a  former  member  of  the 
State  Department  and  still  on  the  pay-roll  of  the  British  army. 

He  was  unwilling  to  return  to  Bavaria  where  his  patron,  the 
Elector  Palatine,  Karl  Theodor,  on  account  of  his  age  (75)  and 
weakness  of  character  was  no  longer  able  to  protect  him  against 
the  intrigues  and  envy  of  the  Bavarian  officers,  and  where  the 
unsettled  state  of  the  country  was  not  favorable  to  scientific 
pursuits.  He  decided  therefore  to  remain  in  England  in  an  un- 
official capacity,  and  purchased  a  villa  in  Brompton  Row,  Knights- 
bridge,  near  London,  which  he  fitted  up  in  accordance  with  his 
own  ideas  of  ventilation  and  heating.  Double  walls  and  windows 
prevented  the  escape  of  heat,  and  the  space  between  the  glass 
partitions  was  filled  with  plants;  the  decorations  were  harmoni- 
ously arranged  according  to  Newton's  theory  of  complementary 
colors;  folding  beds  economized  space,  and  the  cooking  was  done 
in  the  dining-room,  without  annoyance  from  odor  or  heat. 

At  this  time  Count  Rumford  contemplated  a  visit  to  America, 
and  even  proposed  to  purchase  an  estate  near  Cambridge  and  settle 
down  in  his  native  country.  In  spite  of  his  active  service  in  the 
British  army,  he  had  retained  the  friendship  and  esteem  of  Colonel 
Baldwin  and  other  prominent  men  in  the  United  States.  He  had 
been  elected  honorary  member  of  the  American  Academy  of 
Arts  and  Sciences  and  of  the  Massachusetts  Historical  Society, 
and  his  Essays,  published  in  this  country,  had  made  him  well 
known.  He  now  transmitted  to  the  President  of  the  United 
States  through  Rufus  King,  American  Minister  to  England,  his 


BENJAMIN  THOMPSON,  COUNT  RUMFORD          43 

plans  for  an  American  Military  Academy  like  the  one  he  had 
founded  in  Bavaria,  and  a  model  of  a  field-piece  of  his  own  inven- 
tion. This  resulted  in  an  offer  from  the  War  Department,  author- 
ized by  President  John  Adams,  of  appointment  as  Superintendent 
of  the  American  Military  Academy  about  to  be  established,  and 
also  as  Inspector-General  of  the  Artillery  of  the  United  States, 
with  suitable  rank  and  emoluments. 

But  at  the  time  this  offer  was  received  Rumford  was  too  much 
engrossed  with  a  new  project  in  England  to  accept  it.  For  two 
years,  except  when  he  was  sick,  he  worked  night  and  day  with  all 
his  energy  to  found  "a  public  institution  for  diffusing  the  knowl- 
edge and  facilitating  the  general  introduction  of  useful  mechanical 
inventions  and  improvements,  and  for  teaching,  by  courses  of 
philosophical  lectures  and  experiments,  the  application  of  science 
to  the  common  purposes  of  life." 

The  Royal  Institution  remains  the  chief  monument  to  the  mem- 
ory of  Rumford,  for  thanks  to  his  excellent  plan  and  organiza- 
tion, and  to  the  men  of  unusual  ability  who  have  occupied  posi- 
tions in  it,  there  have  emanated  from  it  many  of  the  most  impor- 
tant discoveries  in  science  of  the  past  century,  and  it  has  done 
more  for  the  advancement  of  knowledge  than  the  old  and  richly 
endowed  universities  of  Oxford  and  Cambridge. 

Count  Rumford  succeeded  in  interesting  all  classes,  from  court- 
iers to  mechanics,  in  his  project.  He  secured  a  very  large  number 
of  "proprietors"  at  fifty  guineas  or  more,  and  annual  subscribers 
at  three  guineas,  including  many  nobles,  prelates,  members  of 
Parliament,  ladies  and  scientific  men,  and  in  1800  the  Institution 
received  the  royal  approval. 

A  suitable  building  was  constructed,  containing  a  lecture 
theater,  a  museum  of  models  and  inventions,  a  chemical  laboratory, 
a  library  and  a  conversation  room,  an  experimental  kitchen,  a 
printing  plant  for  publishing  the  Journal,  and  workshops  for 
making  apparatus.  Board  and  lodging  were  to  be  provided  for 
some  twenty  young  men  to  study  mechanics,  and  apprentices 
were  to  be  admitted  free  to  the  gallery  of  the  lecture  room. 
Rumford,  always  on  his  guard  against  "graft,"  made  elaborate 


44  LEADING  AMERICAN  MEN  OF  SCIENCE 

rules  against  any  rewards  or  prizes  for  inventions  made  in  the 
Institution,  and  against  any  exercise  of  favoritism  by  the  authori- 
ties. 

In  some  respects  the  Royal  Institution  departed  from  Rumford's 
intentions  as  soon  as  he  relinquished  his  somewhat  despotic  con- 
trol. He  obviously  had  in  mind  a  sort  of  technological  school  and 
laboratory  for  inventing  useful  appliances,  and  testing  them  for 
the  benefit  of  the  public  according  to  the  idea  thus  expressed  in  his 
Prospectus: 

"It  is  an  undoubtable  truth  that  the  successive  improvements 
in  the  condition  of  man,  from  a  state  of  ignorance  and  barbarism 
to  that  of  the  highest  cultivation  and  refinement,  are  usually  ef- 
fected by  the  aid  of  machinery  in  procuring  the  necessaries,  the 
comforts  and  the  elegancies  of  life;  and  that  the  preeminence  of 
any  people  in  civilization  is,  and  ought  ever  to  be,  estimated  by 
the  state  of  industry  and  mechanical  improvement  among  them." 

When  Rumford  left  England  the  instruction  in  mechanics  was 
quietly  dropped,  because  it  was  thought  that  teaching  science  to 
the  lower  classes  had  a  dangerous  political  tendency.  The  stone 
staircase  leading  to  the  mechanics'  gallery  was  torn  down,  the 
culinary  contrivances  and  the  models  were  put  away,  and  the 
workmen  discharged.  For  a  time  the  Royal  Institution  seemed 
likely  to  degenerate  into  a  mere  fashionable  lecture  course  for 
"a  number  of  silly  women  and  dilettante  philosophers." 

The  Royal  Institution  owes  its  survival  and  success  to  the  fact 
that  it  has  always  contained  one  or  two  determined  investigators, 
and  that  they  were  given  a  free  hand.  Rumford  rightly  prided 
himself  on  his  choice  of  Humphry  Davy,  then  twenty-three  years 
old,  as  assistant  lecturer  in  chemistry,  at  a  salary  of  $500  a  year, 
room,  coals  and  candles  and  a  folding  bed  from  the  model  room 
being  provided  for  his  accommodation.  Five  years  later  in  the 
laboratory  of  the  Royal  Institution,  Davy  decomposed  the  fixed 
alkalies  by  the  electric  current,  and  obtained  from  them  the  new 
metals,  sodium  and  potassium.  Faraday,  then  twenty-one,  at- 
tended four  lectures  of  Sir  Humphry  Davy,  wrote  out  his  notes, 
illustrated  them  by  sketches  of  the  apparatus,  and  sent  them  in  to 


BENJAMIN  THOMPSON,  COUNT  RUMFORD          45 

the  lecturer,  in  this  way  securing  a  position  in  the  Royal  Institu- 
tion, where  he  discovered  that  a  current  of  electricity  could  be 
generated  by  passing  a  wire  in  front  of  a  magnet,  which  is  ,the 
essential  principle  of  all  our  dynamos  and  motors.  The  Royal 
Institution  also  gave  to  Dalton,  Tyndall  and  Dewar  the  opportu- 
nity to  carry  on  their  researches.  Dr.  Thomas  Young,  the  dis- 
coverer of  the  wave  theory  of  light,  was  chosen  by  Rumford  for 
the  lecturer  on  physics.  If,  then,  the  Royal  Institution  has  failed 
to  carry  out  some  of  Rumford's  plans  for  applied  science,  the 
discoveries  which  have  been  made  in  the  field  in  which  he  was 
equally  interested  have  resulted  in  greater  benefits  to  mankind 
than  even  his  imagination  could  conceive.  Were  he  living  now, 
he  would  not  find  reason  to  deplore,  as  he  often  did,  the  conserva- 
tism of  manufacturers  and  the  delay  in  the  application  of  scientific 
discoveries  to  practical  purposes,  although  he  might  still  argue, 
as  he  used  to  do,  that  the  promotion  of  invention  by  commerical 
and  selfish  motives  is  wasteful  and  unsystematic. 

Although  Count  Rumford's  genius  eminently  fitted  him  for  plan- 
ning and  promoting  the  establishment  of  such  institutions,  his 
temperament  was  not  such  as  to  enable  him  to  work  well  as  one 
of  a  number  of  managers  who  all  regarded  themselves  entitled  to 
as  much  consideration  and  authority  as  himself.  His  dictatorial 
manner  and  fondness  for  having  his  own  way  caused  some  friction 
in  the  conduct  of  affairs.  His  health  was  poor,  and  his  sensitive 
nature  was  excessively  irritated  by  the  savage  attacks  of  the 
reviewers  and  satirists  of  the  time  upon  his  scientific  and  philan- 
thropic work.  The  Royal  Institution  was  ridiculed  as  an  attempt 
to  make  science  fashionable,  and  his  efforts  in  behalf  of  the  poor 
were  attacked  on  two  different  grounds,  by  the  radicals  as  an 
attempt  to  squeeze  down  the  poor  to  a  lower  standard  of  life  by 
feeding  them  on  such  stuff  as  Indian  corn  and  potatoes;  and,  on 
the  other  hand,  by  aristocrats,  because  it  was  dangerous  to  society 
to  instil  into  the  minds  of  the  lower  classes  ideas  above  their  sta- 
tion. It  was  thought  to  be  a  degradation  of  science  to  apply  it  to 
such  ignoble  purposes  as  stoves  and  pots.  Peter  Pindar,  for  ex- 
ample, writes: 


46  LEADING  AMERICAN  MEN  OF  SCIENCE 

"Knight  of  the  dish-clout,  whereso'er  I  walk, 
I  hear  thee,  Rumford,  all  the  kitchen  talk: 
Note  of  melodious  cadence  on  my  ear, 
Loud  echoes,  'Rumford'  here  and  'Rumford'  there. 
Lo!  every  parlor,  drawingroom,  I  see, 
Boasts  of  thy  stoves,  and  talks  of  naught  but  thee." 

After  two  years  in  his  quiet  villa  in  Brompton  Row  his  visits 
to  the  continent  became  longer  and  more  frequent,  as  he  looked 
about  for  a  new  field  of  activity.  Besides  his  offer  from  America, 
he  had  an  invitation  from  the  Czar  of  Russia  to  enter  his  service, 
and  the  new  Elector  of  Bavaria,  afterwards  made  king  by  Napo- 
leon, showed  him  some  favor  and  increased  his  pension.  But 
Paris  drew  him  the  strongest,  chiefly  by  two  attractions,  Napoleon 
and  Madame  Lavoisier.  At  a  meeting  of  the  French  Institute  in 
1801  he  sat  near  the  First  Consul,  while  Volta  read  his  paper  on 
his  galvanic  pile,  which  was  discussed  by  Napoleon  with  great 
clearness  and  force.  When  Rumford  was  presented  to  him, 
Napoleon  said  he  knew  him  by  reputation,  and  that  the  French 
nation  had  adopted  some  of  his  inventions.  Immediately  after 
this  interview  he  received  an  invitation  to  dine  with  Napoleon,  as 
the  only  stranger  present.  Rumford  was  later  elected  a  member  of 
the  French  Institute,  on  the  same  date  as  Jefferson,  President  of 
the  United  States,  and  he  contributed  to  it  many  important  papers. 

He  had  become  intimately  acquainted  with  Madame  Lavoisier 
while  traveling  in  Switzerland,  and,  since  she  was  handsome, 
rich,  clever  in  conversation  and  interested  in  science,  he  had  rea- 
son to  suppose  that  she  would  make  a  desirable  wife.  She  was 
the  daughter  of  Mr.  Paulze,  a  contractor  of  the  finances  under  the 
old  regime.  At  fourteen  she  had  been  married  to  the  chemist 
Lavoisier,  then  twice  her  age,  and  she  assisted  him  in  the  labora- 
tory, in  translating  and  in  drawing  the  illustrations  for  his  great 
Traiie  de  Chimie.  When  the  Revolution  broke  out  Lavoisier  was 
arrested  at  the  instigation  of  Marat,  whose  essay  on  fire  he  had 
contemptuously  criticized.  When  brought  before  the  revolutionary 
tribunal  in  1793  Lavoisier  begged  for  a  few  more  days  of  life,  in 
order  to  see  the  outcome  of  a  chemical  experiment  on  which  he 


BENJAMIN  THOMPSON,  COUNT  RUMFORD         47 

was  engaged,  but  Coffinhal,  vice-president  of  the  tribunal,  de- 
clared that  "the  Republic  has  no  use  for  savants,"  and  so  he  was 
guillotined. 

Count  Rumford  was  married  to  Madame  Lavoisier  in  1805, 
and  set  up  a  handsome  establishment  in  the  center  of  Paris.  But 
neither  party  found  the  other  agreeable  to  live  with,  as  they  were 
both  too  independent  and  differed  decidedly  in  their  tastes. 
Madame  Rumford  was  fond  of  lavish  entertainments  and  elabo- 
rate dinners,  while  the  Count  ate  little  and  drank  less,  and  de- 
tested idle  conversation.  Probably  De  Candolle's  analysis  of 
their  temperaments  will  say  all  that  it  is  necessary  about  their 
marital  unhappiness. 

"Rumford  was  cold,  calm,  obstinate,  egotistic,  prodigiously  oc- 
cupied with  the  material  element  of  life  and  the  very  smallest  in- 
ventions of  detail.  He  wanted  his  chimneys,  lamps,  coffee-pots, 
windows,  made  after  a  certain  pattern,  and  he  contradicted  his 
wife  a  thousand  times  a  day  about  the  household  management. 
Madame  Rumford  was  a  woman  of  resolute  wilful  character. 
Her  spirit  was  high,  her  soul  strong  and  her  character  masculine." 

And  one  scene  from  their  married  life  narrated  in  the  Count's 
own  words  in  a  letter  to  his  daughter  Sarah  will  be  sufficient  to 
explain  why  they  separated: 

"A  large  party  had  been  invited  I  neither  liked  nor  approved  of, 
and  invited  for  the  sole  purpose  of  vexing  me.  Our  house  being 
in  the  center  of  the  garden,  walled  around,  with  iron  gates,  I  put 
on  my  hat,  walked  down  to  the  porter's  lodge  and  gave  him  or- 
ders, on  his  peril,  not  to  let  anyone  in.  Besides,  I  took  away  the 
keys.  Madame  came  down,  and  when  the  company  arrived  she 
talked  with  them, — she  on  one  side,  they  on  the  other  of  the  high 
brick  wall.  After  that  she  goes  and  pours  boiling  water  on  some 
of  my  beautiful  flowers!" 

Four  years  of  such  life  were  enough;  they  parted  and  lived 
happily  ever  after.  Madame  Lavoisier  de  Rumford  kept  her  co- 
terie of  distinguished  people  about  her  until  the  day  of  her  death 
at  the  age  of  seventy-eight,  when  with  her  perished  the  last  of  the 
eighteenth  century  salons.  Count  Rumford  retired  to  a  villa  in 


48  LEADING  AMERICAN  MEN  OF  SCIENCE 

Auteuil,  a  suburb  of  Paris,  where  he  spent  the  remaining  five 
years  of  his  life  in  peace  and  quiet,  dividing  his  time  between 
his  laboratory  and  his  garden  with  its  fifty  varieties  of  roses,  gradu- 
ally becoming  more  isolated  from  society,  and  retaining  only  few 
friends,  among  whom  were  Lagrange  and  Cuvier.  His  daughter 
Sarah  joined  him  for  a  time,  but  was  not  with  him  when  he  died. 

His  scientific  researches  in  Paris  were  largely  devoted  to  light, 
and  in  this  field  his  discoveries  were  of  great  importance  and 
practical  value.  In  order  to  get  the  arithmetical  results  for  which 
he  always  strove,  it  was  necessary  to  find  a  method  of  measuring 
the  relative  intensity  of  different  sources  of  light,  and  for  this  pur- 
pose he  invented  what  is  known  as  the  Rumford  photometer.  In 
this  the  standard  lamp  and  the  one  to  be  compared  with  it  are  so 
placed  that  the  two  shadows  cast  by  an  opaque  rod  upon  a  screen 
side  by  side  are  of  equal  intensity,  then  the  relative  brightness  of 
the  lights  are  inversely  as  the  squares  of  their  distances  from  the 
screen.  He  had  an  assistant  move  the  lamps  lest  he  should  be  led 
into  the  temptation  to  distort  his  observations  in  accordance  with 
his  theory.  Since  he  found  that  the  same  weight  of  wax  or  oil 
burned  under  different  conditions  gave  off  very  different  amounts 
of  light,  he  came  to  the  conclusion  that  light  cannot  be  of  the 
chemical  products  of  combustions,  but  was  a  wave  motion  in  the 
ether  due  to  the  heating  of  solid  particles  in  the  flame.  Finding 
how  small  was  the  light  compared,  with  what  might  be  obtained 
from  the  fuel,  he  experimented  on  wicks,  air-holes,  polyflame 
burners,  chimneys,  etc.,  until  he  had  constructed  fourteen  differ- 
ent kinds  of  lamps.  According  to  the  Paris  wits,  one  of  these 
gave  so  powerful  a  light  that  a  man  carrying  it  in  the  street  was 
so  blinded  by  it  that  he  could  not  find  his  way  home,  but  wandered 
in  the  Bois  de  Boulogne  all  night. 

He  anticipated  the  impressionist  artists  in  the  discovery  of 
blue  shadows,  and,  by  a  series  of  very  skilful  experiments,  he 
showed  that  whenever  shadows  were  cast  by  two  lights  of  differ- 
ent colors,  the  shadows  were  of  the  complementary  color,  one  real 
and  the  other  imaginary.  Each  color  called  up  in  the  mind  its 
companion  which,  when  combined  with  it,  produced  a  pure  white. 


BENJAMIN  THOMPSON,  COUNT  RUMFORD         49 

He  calls  attention  to  the  value  of  such  studies  for  artists,  house 
furnishers  and  "  ladies  choosing  ribbons,"  and  suggests  enter- 
tainments of  color  harmonies,  like  musical  concerts.  Rumford 
also  experimented  on  the  chemical  effects  produced  by  light,  such 
as  the  deposition  of  a  film  of  metallic  gold  and  silver  on  a  ribbon 
or  slip  of  ivory  which  had  been  dipped  in  a  solution  of  their  salts; 
a  reaction  which  forms  the  basis  of  modern  photography. 

His  researches  on  heat  and  light  were  based  upon  determina- 
tions of  the  heat  of  combustion  of  the  fuel  used  by  means  of  an 
ingeniously  devised  calorimeter.  In  this  the  products  of  com- 
bustion are  drawn  through  a  worm  immersed  in  a  known  quantity 
of  water  and  the  increase  in  the  temperature  of  the  water  deter- 
mined by  a  thermometer  immersed  in  it.  By  having  the  water 
at  the  beginning  of  the  experiment  about  as  much  cooler  than  the 
room  as  it  was  warmer  at  the  end,  one  of  the  chief  sources  of  error, 
that  of  loss  of  heat  to  the  air,  was  practically  eliminated:  a  method 
still  in  use.  With  this  apparatus,  which  has  only  recently  been 
superseded  by  the  bomb  calorimeter  using  compressed  oxygen, 
he  determined  with  remarkable  accuracy  the  heat  of  burning  alco- 
hol, hydrogen,  carbon  and  many  kinds  of  wood,  coal,  oil  and  wax. 
From  a  determination  of  the  heat  of  combustion  of  wood  and  of 
charcoal  made  from  it,  he  deduced  the  fact  that  the  gas  lost  in 
making  charcoal  is  the  most  valuable  part  of  the  fuel. 

In  looking  over  Count  Rumford's  papers  after  a  hundred  years 
of  scientific  work  has  been  done  in  the  fields  where  he  was  a 
pioneer,  one  is  forcibly  struck  by  his  selection  of  what  were  the 
most  important  problems  to  be  solved.  This  is  shown,  for  ex- 
ample, in  the  interest  he  took  in  the  inconspicuous  phenomena 
of  surface  tension,  and  his  study  of  the  pellicle  covering  the  sur- 
face of  water,  which  supports  a  globule  of  mercury  as  in  a  pocket, 
and  gives  footing  to  water-spiders.  He  clearly  shows  the  impor- 
tance of  this  in  movements  of  sap  in  the  trees  and  of  the  fluids  of 
the  animals;  a  line  of  investigation  that  just  now  is  proving  ex- 
tremely fruitful  in  physics  and  physiology. 

While  in  Paris  he  experimented  on  the  proper  construction  of 
wagon  wheels,  and  invented  a  dynamometer  by  which  the  pull  of 


50  LEADING  AMERICAN  MEN  OF  SCIENCE 

the  horse  was  registered  by  the  needle  of  a  spring-balance.  Having 
ascertained  in  this  way  that  broad  tires  reduced  the  traction 
power,  he  adopted  them  for  his  carriage  notwithstanding  the  jeers 
of  the  street  crowds. 

Count  Rumford  died  in  Auteuil  August  21,  1814,  in  his  sixty- 
second  year.  Baron  Cuvier,  Permanent  Secretary  of  the  French 
Institute,  and  his  intimate  friend,  pronounced  the  eulogy  before 
the  Institute,  coupling  his  name  with  that  of  another  recently 
deceased  member,  Parmentier,  who  introduced  the  potato  into 
France.  Both  savants,  he  says,  were  defenders  of  the  human 
race  against  its  two  greatest  enemies,  hunger  and  cold;  both 
these  enemies  are  to  be  fought  with  the  same  weapon,  the  proper 
use  of  carbon  compounds.  The  physicist  who  invents  an  econom- 
ical fireplace  is  as  though  he  had  added  acres  of  wood;  the  botanist 
who  brings  a  new  edible  plant  virtually  increases  the  arable  land. 
In  laboring  for  the  poor,  Count  Rumford  was  rewarded  by  his 
greatest  discoveries,  so  Fontenelle's  remark  could  be  applied 
to  him  that  "he  had  taken  the  same  road  to  Heaven  and  to  the 
Academy." 


fijr*n    *7    ^/-t.         &Jt*S*r&***       ^a^l^^L^^^^^^ 


ALEXANDER  WILSON 

ORNITHOLOGIST 

1766-1813 
BY  WITMER  STONE 

ALEXANDER  WILSON  has  been  termed  "the  father  of  American 
Ornithology,"  and  not  without  reason.  He  was  not  the  pioneer 
writer  upon  American  birds  as  Catesby,  Forster  and  others  pre- 
ceded him  by  many  years,  but  to  him  we  are  indebted  for  the  first 
comprehensive  work  on  the  birds  of  our  country  at  large,  and  the 
first  work  which  merited  the  title  that  he  bestowed  upon  it,  Amer- 
ican Ornithology. 

Wilson's  Ornithology  was  not  a  scientific  work  so  far  as  mat- 
ters of  anatomy  and  taxonomy  were  concerned.  Indeed,  knowl- 
edge of  these  subjects  was  not  very  far  advanced  at  that  day 
and  our  author  had  given  them  little  attention.  His  aim  was  to 
picture  each  bird  as  accurately  as  his  skill  permitted  both  with 
brush  and  pen  and  to  include  in  his  text,  backgrounds  and  side- 
lights upon  its  life  and  haunts  drawn  from  his  travels  and  rambles 
through  wood  and  field. 

Love  of  nature  always  predominates  over  technique  and  this 
spirit  of  the  Ornithology  seems  to  have  pervaded  much  of  our 
subsequent  ornithological  literature  to  a  great  extent.  Possibly 
the  nature  of  the  study  is  to  some  degree  responsible,  but  this  early 
work  seems  to  have  set  a  style  which  has  been  followed  in  the  vol- 
umes that  have  succeeded  it. 

Wilson's  character  is  in  no  small  degree  reflected  in  his  work. 
He  was  not  a  scientific  man  in  the  modern  sense,  not  a  closet 
naturalist,  but  a  poet  who  loved  nature  for  herself  and  he  took  up 
the  study  of  ornithology  not  as  science  but  because  the  beauty  of 
the  birds  and  the  melody  of  their  songs  appealed  to  him. 


He  later  recognized  the  importance  of  scientific  accuracy  and 
bibliographic  research,  but  this  came  as  a  secondary  result  of  the 
line  of  work  upon  which  he  had  set  out,  and  was  not  a  primary 
interest  with  him.  His  Ornithology  was  born  in  the  woods  not  in 
the  museum  or  library. 

J  Wilson  was  doubtless  acquainted  with  the  birds  of  his  native 
country  and  knew  them  by  name  just  as  he  knew  the  thistle,  the 
*  w  heather  and  the  bracken,  for  upon  landing  in  America  one  of 
his  first  comments  was  upon  the  strange  birds  and  shrubs  that 
surrounded  him,  but  there  is  no  evidence  that  he  had  any  early 
inclination  toward  the  study  of  birds  except  as  they  formed  a  part 
of  nature  which  was  ever  dear  to  him. 

Every  lover  of  nature  seems  to  have  within  him  more  or  less 
latent  talent  for  art,  poetry  and  natural  history,  and  circumstances 
largely  determine  which  of  the  three  comes  most  prominently  to 
the  surface.  In  Wilson,  poetry  first  filled  his  mind  and  became 
the  aim  of  his  life,  but  his  talent  in  this  direction  was  not  suffi- 
ciently  great  to  earn  him  conspicuous  notoriety  and  it  was  as  a 
chronicler  of  nature  that  he  became  famous  though  he  did  not 
enter  upon  this  role  until  the  last  decade  of  his  life. 

Alexander  Wilson  was  born  in  the  Seedhills  of  Paisley  in 
Renfrewshire,  Scotland,  July  6,  1766,  the  son  of  Alexander  Wilson 
and  Mary  McNab.  The  early  death  of  his  mother  may  have 
had  some  effect  upon  his  after  life  as  it  is  said  that  she  intended 
that  he  should  study  for  the  ministry.  However  this  may  be  his 
father  and  stepmother  seem  to  have  done  as  much  for  him  as 
their  poverty  and  the  large  size  of  their  family  permitted.  He  at- 
tended the  Paisley  grammar  school  and  learned  to  read  and  write, 
but  was  compelled  in  later  life  to  make  up  for  many  deficiencies 
which  had  they  been  supplied  at  the  proper  time  would  have  aided 
him  greatly  in  his  life's  work. 

While  a  small  boy  he  was  engaged  for  a  short  time,  at  least,  as 
a  cattle  herd  on  the  farm  of  Bakerfield,  but  when  only  thirteen 
years  of  age  became  apprenticed  to  his  brother-in-law,  William 
Duncan,  to  learn  the  "art  of  weaving"  which  was  the  occupation 
of  nearly  all  of  his  friends  and  relatives. 


ALEXANDER  WILSON  53 

Even  at  this  time  Wilson  was  writing  verses  and  his  mind  was 
ever  turning  to  the  outdoor  life  which  was  dear  to  his  heart  and 
in  comparison  with  which  the  loom  was  a  sorry  bondage.  As 
the  only  visible  means  of  earning  a  living  he  continued  weaving 
until  1789  when  he  joined  his  brother-in-law  in  a  tour  of  eastern 
Scotland  as  a  peddler.  This  undertaking  was  prompted  by  his 
love  of  tramping  and  his  restlessness  under  uncongenial  confine- 
ment; not  by  any  love  or  ability  for  trading,  for  that  he  did  not 
possess.  While  gratifying  his  taste  for  outdoor  life  he  was  by  no 
means  benefited  financially  by  the  change.  However,  he  gave 
full  rein  to  his  poetical  ambition,  and  with  his  characteristic 
impetuosity  he  soon  had  visions  of  publishing  his  volume  of  verses 
and  sharing  in  the  notoriety  that  had  just  greeted  the  issue  of 
Burns'  first  poems.  Wilson  was  evidently  acquainted  with  Burns 
as  some  of  his  verses  show  and  entertained  a  very  high  opinion  of 
him.  To  what  extent  Burns'  success  may  have  influenced  him 
or  his  style  is  hard  to  say,  but  one  of  the  best  of  Wilson's  produc- 
tions published  anonymously  was  attributed  to  the  "plowman," 
doubtless  to  the  author's  great  gratification. 

Wilson  reached  the  height  of  his  practical  ambition  in  1790 
when  he  published  a  volume  of  his  poetical  writings.  It  was, 
however,  an  indifferent  production  and  failed  to  bring  him  the 
renown  that  he  coveted.  In  1792  he  was  back  at  the  loom  but 
as  before  despondent  and  unhappy  and  in  sore  straits  financially. 
He  continued  to  publish  occasional  poems  in  the  local  papers  and 
now  and  then  indulged  in  sarcastic  verses  on  certain  civil  authori- 
ties and  other  self-important  personages.  This  practice  finally 
brought  him  face  to  face  with  libel  charges,  resulting  in  fines  and 
imprisonment. 

Upon  his  release,  consumed  with  bitterness  and  more  despond- 
ent than  ever  he  resolved  to  leave  his  native  country  and  try  his 
fortune  in  America.  Accordingly,  accompanied  by  his  nephew, 
William  Duncan,  he  sailed  from  Belfast  on  May  23,  1794,  and 
reached  the  mouth  of  Delaware  bay  on  the  nth  of  July. 

Impatient  to  be  once  more  ashore  they  landed  at  New  Castle, 
Delaware,  " happy  as  mortals  could  be"  and  went  on  foot  to 


54  LEADING  AMERICAN  MEN  OF  SCIENCE 

Wilmington  and  thence  to  Philadelphia  through  virgin  forest 
most  of  the  way,  past  log  cabins,  and  occasional  farms.  "On 
the  way,"  Wilson  writes  to  his  parents,  "I  did  not  observe  one 
bird  such  as  those  in  Scotland  but  all  much  richer  in  color  .  .  . 
some  red  birds,  several  of  which  I  shot  for  our  curiosity."  This 
quotation  is  worthy  of  note  as  it  shows  an  early  interest  in  birds 
and  an  appreciation  of  the  difference  in  the  avi-fauna  of  the  two 
countries.  At  the  same  time  we  find  no  further  mention  of  birds 
in  his  correspondence  for  many  years. 

The  two  weavers  found  no  opening  for  men  of  their  trade  in 
Philadelphia  and  seem  to  have  been  compelled  to  accept  any  kind 
of  employment  that  was  offered.  Wilson,  always  of  a  delicate 
constitution  and  unfitted  for  hard  labor,  succeeded  in  securing  a 
school  first  at  Frankford  and  later  at  Milestown,  a  short  distance 
north  of  the  city.  The  requisites  of  the  country  schoolmaster 
were  not  very  severe  at  this  time,  and  as  Wilson  wrote  a  good  hand 
and  had  always  been  a  reader  his  education,  in  spite  of  early  short- 
comings, was  apparently  fully  equal  to  the  calls  made  upon  it. 
With  the  idea  of  advancing  in  this  profession  he  seems  to  have 
been  constantly  endeavoring  to  improve  himself  in  mathematics 
and  other  studies  in  which  he  recognized  himself  as  deficient. 

His  particular  friend  at  this  period  of  his  life  was  Charles  Orr, 
a  writing  master  in  Philadelphia  and  a  man  of  studious  nature 
with  whom  Wilson  maintained  an  active  correspondence.  His 
letters  of  September,  1800,  show  that  he  had  been  forced  to  relin- 
quish his  school  on  account  of  ill  health,  but  at  the  earnest  request 
of  the  trustees  agreed  to  try  it  again.  "I  was  attached  to  the  chil- 
dren and  to  the  people,"  he  wrote,  "and  if  they  would  allow  me 
one  week  more  to  ramble  about,  I  would  once  more  engage,  though 
I  should  die  in  their  service.  My  request  was  immediately  acceded 
to,  and  I  am  once  more  the  dominie  of  Milestown  school."  Later 
he  writes,  "I  have  begun  the  old  way  again  and  have  about  thirty 
scholars.  I  study  none  and  take  my  morning  and  evening  ramble 
regularly.  Do  you  spend  any  of  your  leisure  hours  with  the 
puzzling  chaps,  algebra  and  trigonometry,  etc.,  or  are  you  wholly 
absorbed  in  the  study  of  mechanics  ?  You  must  write  me  particu- 


ALEXANDER  WILSON  55 

larly.  I  think  I  shall  take  a  ride  15  or  20  miles  on  Saturday.  I 
find  riding  agrees  better  with  me  than  any  other  exercise.  I 
always  feel  cheerful  after  it,  and  can  eat  confoundedly.  Have 
you  made  any  new  discoveries  in  the  Heaven  above,  or  the  earth 
beneath,  with  your  telescope  or  microscope?" 

At  this  time  his  nephew  had  moved  to  Ovid,  Cayuga  county, 
New  York,  where  they  had  purchased  a  tract  of  land  and  begun 
to  farm.  Other  members  of  his  family  came  hither  from  Scotland 
and  it  seems  to  have  been  Wilson's  intention  to  join  them  though 
he  afterwards  abandoned  the  idea. 

In  1801  Wilson  left  Milestown  and  obtained  a  school  at  Bloom- 
field,  N.  J.,  where  he  remained  about  a  year.  He  seems  to  have 
had  little  trouble  in  securing  positions.  School-teachers,  were,  to 
be  sure,  scarce  and  salaries  small,  as  he  complained  bitterly  with 
respect  to  his  Bloomfield  engagement  where  the  people  "paid 
their  minister  250  pounds  a  year  for  preaching  twice  a  week  and 
their  teacher  40  dollars  a  quarter  for  the  most  spirit-sinking, 
laborious  work,  six,  I  may  say  twelve  times  weekly." 

Wilson,  however,  seems  to  have  possessed  the  requisites  of  a 
teacher  in  no  small  degree;  he  was  both  a  disciplinarian  and  an 
instructor  and  succeeded  in  his  main  object,  that  of  imparting 
knowledge  to  his  pupils.  He  also  seems  to  have  gained  the  respect 
and  good-will  of  the  people  among  whom  he  established  himself 
so  that  they  were  loath  to  have  him  leave  them.  In  describing 
his  Bloomfield  school  he  writes:  "The  schoolhouse  in  which  I 
teach  is  situated  at  the  extremity  of  a  spacious  level  plain  of  sand 
thinly  covered  with  grass.  In  the  centre  of  this  plain  stands  a 
newly  erected  stone  meeting-house,  80  feet  by  60,  which  forms  a 
striking  contrast  with  my  sanctum  sanctorum,  which  has  been 
framed  of  logs  some  100  years  ago,  and  looks  like  an  old  sentry 
box.  The  scholars  have  been  accustomed  to  great  liberties  by 
their  former  teacher.  They  used  to  put  stones  in  his  pocket,  etc., 
etc.  I  was  told  that  the  people  did  not  like  to  have  their  children 
punished,  but  I  began  with  such  a  system  of  terror  as  soon  estab- 
lished my  authority  most  effectually.  I  succeed  in  teaching  them 
to  read  and  I  care  for  none  of  their  objections." 


56  LEADING  AMERICAN  MEN  OF  SCIENCE 

Wilson  became  involved  in  a  love  affair  while  at  Milestown, 
which  did  not  end  happily  for  him,  and  his  sensitive  nature  ever 
subject  to  fits  of  despondency  became  more  than  ever  affected 
during  his  stay  at  Bloomfield  where  he  was  surrounded  by  stran- 
gers. He  proposed  to  his  friend  Orr  that  they  open  a  school 
somewhere  under  their  joint  management;  he  even  thought  of 
turning  his  back  upon  his  adopted  country  and  returning  to  the 
shores  of  Caledonia,  and  meanwhile  he  consoled  himself  in  his 
solitude  with  writing  poems. 

In  February,  1802,  he  moved  again,  this  time  to  take  charge  of 
the  school  at  Gray's  Ferry  just  outside  the  city  of  Philadelphia. 
He  had  evidently  not  recovered  from  his  despondency,  as  he  writes, 
"I  shall  recommence  that  painful  profession  once  more  with  the 
same  gloomy  sullen  resignation  that  a  prisoner  re-enters  his  dun- 
geon or  a  malefactor  mounts  the  scaffold;  fate  urges  him,  necessity 
me.  The  present  pedagogue  is  a  noisy,  outrageous  fat  old  cap- 
tain of  a  ship,  who  has  taught  these  ten  years  in  different  places. 
You  may  hear  him  bawling  300  yards  off.  The  boys  seem  to 
pay  as  little  regard  to  it  as  ducks  to  the  rumbling  of  a  stream 
under  them.  I  shall  have  many  difficulties  to  overcome  in  estab- 
lishing my  own  rules  and  authority.  But  perseverance  over- 
cometh  all  things." 

Little  did  Wilson  suspect  that  this  last  move  would  prove  the 
turning-point  of  his  life  and  raise  him  from  oblivion  to  fame  though 
not  in  the  field  in  which  he  had  always  imagined  that  his  genius 
lay. 

Amid  the  green  fields  and  the  budding  woods  of  early  spring  he 
forgot  his  troubles  and  his  spirits  rose  again  with  their  charac- 
teristic impetuosity.  Poetry  as  usual  was  his  resource:  "My  harp 
J  is  new  strung,"  he  writes,  "and  my  soul  glows  with  more  ardour 
)  than  ever  to  emulate  those  immortal  bards  who  have  gone  before 
I  me  ...  my  heart  swells,  my  soul  rises  to  an  elevation  I  cannot 
X  express." 

But  poetry  was  soon  to  take  second  place  in  his  consideration. 

Close  to  Gray's  Ferry  lay  the  homestead  of  the  Bartrams,  a 
curious  old  stone  mansion  surrounded  by  the  historic  botanical 


ALEXANDER  WILSON  57 

garden  the  pride  of  the  famous  old  botanist,  John  Bartram. 
Here  there  were  living  at  this  time  the  two  sons  of  the  original 
proprietor,  John  and  William  Bartram.  The  latter,  then  a  man, 
of  sixty-one  years  of  age,  was  a  botanist  of  perhaps  quite  as  much 
ability  as  his  father,  while  he  also  possessed  a  hoard  of  knowledge 
on  general  natural  history  equalled  by  but  few  men  of  his  time. 
He  had  traveled  when  a  young  man  through  Georgia,  Carolina 
and  Florida  and  published  a  report  on  his  travels.  Being  ex- 
ceedingly modest,  however,  he  never  sought  fame  by  further  pub- 
lications, though  he  generously  aided  all  who  came  to  him  for  as- 
sistance and  advice  and  shared  with  them  his  store  of  knowledge. 

Between  Bartram  and  Wilson  a  close  intimacy  immediately 
sprang  up,  and  the  association  with  the  venerable  naturalist  and 
the  atmosphere  which  prevaded  the  botanic  garden  soon  kindled 
into  flame  the  latent  interest  in  birds  which  up  to  that  time  had 
been  dominated  by  the  spirit  of  poetry. 

Ornithology  was  almost  as  much  a  hobby  with  Bartram  as 
botany,  and  he  had  published  in  his  Travels  a  list  of  the  birds  of 
eastern  North  America,  consequently  he  gave  every  encourage- 
ment to  the  development  of  this  taste  in  his  young  friend. 

The  meagerness  and  inaccuracy  of  the  literature  of  American 
ornithology,  and  the  obvious  need  of  science  for  the  knowledge 
that  he  felt  he  could  supply  strongly  appealed  to  Wilson,  while 
the  recreation  from  his  confining  school  duties  which  the  pursuit 
of  this  study  would  afford  him,  was  an  additional  allurement. 

In  1803  he  writes  to  a  friend,  "I  have  had  many  pursuits  since 
I  left  Scotland  .  .  .  and  I  am  now  about  to  make  a  collection  of 
all  our  finest  birds." 

The  first  essential  in  natural  history  research  in  those  days  was 
the  preparation  of  drawings  of  the  objects  studied,  and  Wilson 
being  by  no  means  an  artist  born  set  about  the  laborious  task  of 
learning  to  draw.  Night  after  night  he  worked  patiently  with 
brush  and  pencil  in  his  efforts  to  produce  satisfactory  pictures  of 
the  birds  which  he  shot.  Alexander  Lawson,  the  engraver,  gave 
him  instruction  and  Miss  Nancy  Bartram,  a  niece  of  the  naturalist, 
also  helped  him.  Wilson  never  attained  much  artistic  ability, 


58  LEADING  AMERICAN  MEN  OF  SCIENCE 

but  his  sole  object,  the  production  of  faithful  bird  portraits,  he  did 
accomplish  and  in  a  style  superior  to  any  work  published  up  to 
that  time  and  to  many  that  came  after. 

Some  of  his  first  efforts  he  sent  to  Bartram  with  the  following 
explanation:  "The  duties  of  my  profession  will  not  admit  me  to 
apply  to  this  study  with  the  assiduity  and  perseverance  I  could 
wish.  Chief  part  of  what  I  do  is  sketched  by  candle-light,  and  for 
this  I  am  obliged  to  sacrifice  the  pleasures  of  social  life,  and  the 
agreeable  moments  which  I  might  enjoy  in  company  with  you  and 
your  amiable  friend.  I  shall  be  happy  if  what  I  have  done  merits 
your  approbation."  To  Lawson  he  writes  about  this  time,  "Six 
days  in  one  week  I  have  no  more  time  than  just  to  swallow  my 
meals  and  return  to  my  Sanctum  Sanctorum.  Five  days  of  the 
following  week  are  occupied  in  the  same  routine  of  pedagoguing 
matters;  and  the  other  two  are  sacrificed  to  that  itch  for  drawing, 
which  I  caught  from  your  honorable  self.  I  am  most  earnestly 
bent  on  pursuing  my  plan  of  making  a  collection  of  all  the  birds 
in  this  part  of  North  America.  Now  I  don't  want  you  to  throw 
cold  water,  as  Shakespeare  says,  on  this  notion,  Quixotic  as  it 
may  appear.  I  have  been  so  long  accustomed  to  the  building  of 
airy  castles  and  brain  windmills,  that  it  has  become  one  of  my 
earthly  comforts,  a  sort  of  a  rough  bone,  that  amuses  me  when 
sated  with  the  dull  drudgery  of  life." 

Quoting  again  from  his  letters  as  the  best  record  we  have  of  his 
progress,  we  find  him  writing  to  Bartram  in  March,  1804: 

"  I  send  for  your  amusement  a  few  attempts  at  some  of  our  in- 
digenous birds,  hoping  that  your  good  nature  will  excuse  their  de- 
ficiencies, while  you  point  them  out  to  me.  I  am  almost  ashamed 
to  send  you  these  drawings,  but  I  know  your  generous  disposition 
will  induce  you  to  encourage  one  in  whom  you  perceive  a  sincere 
and  eager  wish  to  do  well.  They  were  chiefly  colored  by  candle 
light. 

"I  have  now  got  my  collection  of  native  birds  considerably  en- 
larged; and  shall  endeavour,  if  possible,  to  obtain  all  the  smaller 
ones  this  summer.  Be  pleased  to  mark  on  the  drawings,  with  a 
pencil,  the  name  of  each  bird,  as,  except  three  or  four,  I  do  not 
know  them.  I  shall  be  extremely  obliged  to  you  for  every  hint 


ALEXANDER  WILSON  59 

that  will  assist  me  in  this  agreeable  amusement.  ...  I  declare 
that  the  face  of  an  owl,  and  the  back  of  a  lark,  have  put  me  to  a 
nonplus;  and  if  Miss  Nancy  will  be  so  obliging  as  to  try  her  hand 
on  the  last  mentioned,  I  will  furnish  her  with  one  in  good  order, 
and  will  copy  her  drawing  with  the  greatest  pleasure;  having 
spent  almost  a  week  on  two  different  ones,  and  afterwards  de- 
stroyed them  both,  and  got  nearly  in  the  slough  of  desppnd." 

The  next  two  years  passed  rapidly  at  Gray's  Ferry.  Wilson 
concentrated  his  attention  upon  the  collecting  and  drawing  of 
birds,  while  his  leisure  moments  were  spent  in  the  company  of  his 
friend  and  adviser,  for  whom  his  love  and  esteem  were  constantly 
increasing.  "I  confess,"  he  writes,  "that  I  was  always  an  enthu- 
siast in  my  admiration  of  the  rural  scenery  of  Nature;  but  since 
your  example  and  encouragement  have  set  me  to  attempt  to  imitate 
her  productions,  I  see  new  beauties  in  every  bird,  plant,  or  flower 
I  contemplate;  and  find  my  ideas  of  the  incomprehensible  First 
Cause  still  more  exalted,  the  more  minutely  I  examine  His  work." 
And  again  regarding  some  more  drawings  sent  to  Bartram,  "  Criti- 
cise these,  my  dear  friend,  without  fear  of  offending  me — this 
will  instruct,  but  not  discourage  me.  For  there  is  not  among  all 
our  naturalists  one  who  knows  so  well  what  they  are,  and  how 
they  ought  to  be  represented.  In  the  mean  time  accept  of  my 
best  wishes  for  your  happiness — wishes  as  sincere  as  ever  one  hu- 
man being  breathed  for  another.  To  your  advice  and  encourag- 
ing encomiums  I  am  indebted  for  these  few  specimens,  and  for  all 
that  will  follow.  They  may  yet  tell  posterity  that  I  was  honored 
with  your  friendship,  and  that  to  your  inspiration  they  owe  their 
existance." 

Meanwhile  the  school  went  on  and  the  scholars  became  inter- 
ested in  gratifying  their  master's  tastes.  "I  have  had  live  crows, 
hawks  and  owls, — oppossums,  squirrels,  snakes,  and  lizards," 
writes  Wilson,  "so  that  my  room  has  sometimes  reminded  me  of 
Noah's  ark ;  but  Noah  had  a  wife  in  one  corner  of  it,  and  in  this 
particular  our  parallel  does  not  altogether  tally.  I  receive  every 
subject  of  natural  history  that  is  brought  to  me  and  though  they 
do  not  march  into  my  ark  from  all  quarters,  as  they  did  that  of 


60  LEADING  AMERICAN  MEN  OF  SCIENCE 

our  great  ancestor,  yet  I  find  means,  by  the  distribution  of  a  few 
five-penny  bits,  to  make  them  find  the  way  fast  enough.  A  boy, 
not  long  ago,  brought  me  a  large  basket  full  of  crows.  I  expect 
his  next  load  will  be  bull-frogs,  if  I  don't  soon  issue  orders  to  the 
contrary." 

The  winter  of  1804-05  was  very  severe  and  the  suffering  was 
great.  Many  scholars  were  unable  to  continue  in  attendance  at 
Wilson's  school-house  and  he  was  in  such  financial  straits  that  he 
was  forced  to  propose  giving  up  his  position.  The  trustees,  how- 
ever, would  not  hear  of  it  and  immediately  raised  sufficient  funds 
to  retain  his  services. 

In  October,  1804,  Wilson  took  a  journey  mainly  on  foot  to  visit 
his  nephew  at  Ovid,  continuing  to  Niagara  Falls  and  returning 
to  Gray's  Ferry  in  December.  This  trip  inspired  his  last  lengthy 
poem,  which  was  separately  published  as  The  Foresters  being  in 
fact  a  narrative  of  the  trip  in  verse.  The  varied  scenery  also 
stirred  up  the  old  spirit  of  restlessness,  and  he  wrote  to  Bartram 
of  the  advisability  of  becoming  a  traveler  "to  commence  some 
more  extensive  expedition,  where  scenes  and  subjects  entirely  new, 
and  generally  unknown,  might  reward  my  curiosity;  and  where 
perhaps  my  humble  acquisitions  might  add  something  to  the  store 
of  knowledge."  He  also  asked  how  he  might  best  acquire  a 
knowledge  of  botany  and  mineralogy. 

Whatever  Bartram's  advice  may  have  been  Wilson  seems  to 
have  continued  his  study  of  scientific  literature  with  redoubled 
vigor.  His  letters  at  this  time  contain  comments  and  criticisms 
on  current  publications  which  indicate  a  considerable  breadth  of 
knowledge,  and  early  in  the  following  year  he  was  appointed 
assistant  editor  of  Rees's  New  Cyclopaedia,  then  being  published 
by  Bradford  and  Company  of  Philadelphia.  He  received  a  "  gen- 
erous salary"  of  $900  per  year  and  was  at  last  freed  from  the 
drudgery  of  his  school,  though  for  a  time  at  least  his  work  was 
more  confining  and  necessitated  his  residence  in  the  heart  of  the 
city  which  he  thoroughly  detested. 

Almost  from  the  time  Wilson  set  foot  on  American  soil  he  be- 
came strongly  attached  to  the  country,  and  his  letters  to  friends  at 


ALEXANDER  WILSON  6l 

home  constantly  boast  of  the  resources  and  possibilities  of  the 
States.  President  Jefferson  commanded  his  deep  respect  and 
admiration,  especially  on  account  of  his  scientific  attainments,  and 
to  him  he  seems  to  have  looked  for  some  assistance  in  the  prosecu- 
tion of  his  ornithological  studies.  He  sent  him  with  much  diffi- 
dence drawings  of  two  birds  which  he  had  secured  on  his  journey 
to  Niagara  and  received  a  very  appreciative  letter  from  the  presi- 
dent. Encouraged  by  this  Wilson  wrote  again  just  before  receiv- 
ing his  editorial  appointment  and  applied  for  a  position  on  the 
expedition  then  being  fitted  out  by  the  government  under  Captain 
Nicolas  Pike  to  explore  the  sources  of  the  Arkansas  River;  no 
attention,  however,  was  paid  to  his  application. 

The  idea  of  publishing  the  results  of  his  bird  studies  seems  to 
have  taken  definite  shape  in  Wilson's  mind  toward  the  end  of  the 
year  1805,  and  he  at  that  time  was  making  attempts  at  etching 
on  copper.  Catesby  for  economy's  sake  etched  his  own  plates, 
and  Wilson  being  no  better  situated  financially  probably  saw  no 
other  way  to  reproduce  his  drawings.  His  first  efforts  which  Ord 
tells  us  were'plates  one  and  two  of  the  Ornithology  were  sent  to 
Bartram  on  November  29,  1805,  and  January  4,  1806,  the  latter 
one  accompanied  by  the  following  note:  "Mr.  Wilson's  affectionate 
compliments  to  Mr.  Bartram;  and  sends  for  his  amusement  and 
correction  another  proof  of  his  Birds  of  the  United  States.  The 
coloring  being  chiefly  done  last  night,  must  soften  criticism  a  little. 
Will  be  thankful  for  my  friend's  advice  and  correction."  In  the 
letter  to  President  Jefferson  above  alluded  to,  he  clearly  states  his 
purpose  of  publishing  as  he  says,  "Having  been  engaged,  these 
several  years,  in  collecting  materials  and  finishing  drawings  from 
Nature,  with  the  design  of  publishing  a  new  Ornithology  of  the 
United  States  of  America,  so  deficient  are  the  works  of  Catesby, 
Edwards,  and  other  Europeans,  I  have  traversed  the  greater  part 
of  our  northern  and  eastern  districts;  and  have  collected  many 
birds  undescribed  by  these  naturalists.  Upwards  of  one  hundred 
drawings  are  completed,  and  two  plates  in  folio  already  engraved." 

By  April,  1807,  the  propectus  was  ready,  and  apparently  dissat- 
isfied with  his  own  efforts  he  had  engaged  Alexander  Lawson  to 


62  LEADING  AMERICAN  MEN  OF  SCIENCE 

etch  the  plates.  The  remuneration  could  not  have  been  great 
and  the  profits  were  lessened  by  the  labor  that  was  necessary  to 
bring  the  plates  up  to  the  author's  ideal.  In  fact  Lawson  told  Ord 
that  he  found  frequently  his  reward  did  not  amount  to  more  than 
fifty  cents  a  day,  but  he  was  so  anxious  to  encourage  his  friend 
that  he  made  no  complaint  and  his  work  was  in  a  great  measure 
a  labor  of  love.  In  planning  for  the  publication  Wilson  no  doubt 
derived  great  benefits  from  his  association  with  Bradford  and 
Company  and  it  was  of  course  this  house  which  was  to  issue  the 
work. 

In  the  autumn  of  1808,  with  a  sample  copy  of  volume  one,  he 
started  upon  a  personal  canvass  of  the  country  for  the  two-hundred 
and  fifty  subscribers  which  were  considered  necessary  before  the 
publication  could  be  seriously  prosecuted,  the  subscription  price 
being  $120.  Traveling  by  stage  and  on  foot  he  visited  Princeton, 
New  York,  New  Haven,  Boston  and  Portland  Maine,  and  re- 
turned by  way  of  Dartmouth  College  and  Albany,  stopping  at  all 
the  smaller  towns  on  the  way  where  possible  subscribers  might  be 
found. 

His  success  was  varied;  scientific  men  of  means  subscribed  as 
did  many  prominent  citizens  interested  in  the  advancement  of 
literature  and  science.  Many  others,  however,  while  lavish  in 
praise  of  his  beautiful  pictures  were  appalled  at  the  price  and 
still  others  seemed  to  totally  lack  appreciation  of  the  merits  of  his 
work.  Governor  Tompkins  of  New  York,  afterwards  Vice- 
President  of  the  United  States,  said,  "I  would  not  give  a  hundred 
dollars  for  all  the  birds  you  intend  to  describe,  even  had  I  them 
alive." 

Such  rebuffs  must  have  been  hard  to  bear,  but  Wilson  had 
plenty  of  pluck  and  his  letters  home  while  avoiding  any  mention 
of  his  success  are  full  of  descriptions  of  the  places  he  visited. 
Every  spot  of  historic  interest  inspired  him  with  respect.  He  vis- 
ited Bunker  Hill  with  a  feeling  of  veneration  and  was  surprised 
that  the  people  living  in  the  vicinity  did  not  seem  to  share  it. 

Upon  his  return  to  Philadelphia  Wilson  set  out  almost  immedi- 
ately upon  a  southern  tour,  visiting  Washington,  Charleston,  and 


ALEXANDER  WILSON  63 

Savannah,  in  which  latter  city  he  succeeded  in  bringing  the  total 
of  his  subscription  list  up  to  the  requisite  two  hundred  and  fifty; 
" having,"  to  quote  his  own  words,  " visited  all  the  towns  within 
one  hundred  miles  of  the  Atlantic  from  Maine  to  Georgia  and 
done  as  much  for  this  bantling  book  of  mine  as  ever  author  did 
for  any  progeny  of  his  brain."  His  experience  in  the  south  was 
much  like  that  in  the  north.  "In  Annapolis,"  he  writes,  "I  passed 
my  book  through  both  Houses  of  the  Legislature;  the  wise  men 
of  Maryland  stared  and  gaped,  from  bench  to  bench;  but  having 
never  heard  of  such  a  thing  as  one  hundred  and  twenty  dollars 
for  a  book,  the  ayes  for  subscribing  were  none." 

In  Charleston  he  found  such  "listlessness  and  want  of  energy" 
that  he  could  get  no  one  to  draw  him  up  a  list  of  likely  subscribers 
and  "was  obliged  to  walk  the  streets  and  pick  out  those  houses, 
which,  from  their  appearance  indicated  wealth  and  taste  in  the 
occupants,  and  introduce  myself."  However,  his  task  was  ac- 
complished, and  flushed  with  success  he  embarked  for  Philadel- 
phia in  March,  1809,  ready  to  push  the  publication  of  his  volumes 
with  all  possible  haste. 

Wilson's  canvassing  trips  were  profitable  in  other  ways  than  the 
securing  of  subscribers.  His  scientific  acquaintances  had  hitherto 
been  mainly  limited  to  Philadelphia  or  to  such  visitors  as  he 
met  at  Bartram's  hospitable  mansion.  He  knew  Thomas  Say, 
George  Ord,  Benjamin  S.  Barton,  and  the  Peales,  while  he  had 
met  Michaux  and  Muhlenberg,  the  botanists.  Now,  however,  in 
every  town  he  sought  out  those  interested  in  Natural  History.  As 
he  himself  put  it:  "Whatever  may  be  the  result  of  these  matters, 
[subscriptions]  I  shall  not  sit  down  with  folded  hands.  ...  I  am 
fixing  correspondents  in  every  corner  of  these  northern  regions, 
like  so  many  pickets  and  outposts,  so  that  scarcely  a  wren  or  tit 
shall  be  able  to  pass  along,  from  New  York  to  Canada,  but  I  shall 
get  intelligence  of  it.  .  .  ." 

Notable  among  his  new  acquaintances  was  Abbott  of  Georgia, 
famous  for  his  publication  on  the  insects  of  his  native  state.  With 
him  he  arranged  for  the  forwarding  of  such  southern  birds  as  he 
was  personally  unable  to  secure  as  well  as  any  that  were  in  Abbott's 


64  LEADING  AMERICAN  MEN  OF  SCIENCE 

estimation  new  to  science.  These  Wilson  agreed  to  pay  for  through 
his  agent  in  Savannah. 

In  January,  1810,  the  second  volume  of  the  Ornithology  ap- 
peared, and  shortly  afterward  Wilson  started  westward  to  explore 
the  ornithological  terra  incognita  that  lay  beyond  the  Alleghanies. 
He  had  for  some  years  realized  the  necessity  of  exploring  this 
country  as  he  supposed  there  were  many  birds  to  be  found  there 
which  never  came  east  of  the  mountains.  In  1805  he  had  ar- 
ranged such  an  excursion  in  company  with  Bartram,  but  the  fail- 
ing health  of  the  venerable  botanist  finally  compelled  him  to  re- 
linquish all  thought  of  going,  while  Wilson,  after  failing  to  receive 
an  appointment  upon  the  government  expedition,  also  abandoned 
the  project  as  he  realized  that  his  finances  would  not  warrant  such 
an  undertaking.  Now,  however,  the  expedition  was  imperative 
both  on  account  of  the  probable  scientific  results  and  the  possible 
subscribers  to  be  obtained  in  the  towns  of  the  Ohio  and  Mis- 
sissippi Valleys. 

His  route  lay  from  Pittsburg  down  the  Ohio,  which  he  trav- 
ersed in  a  rowboat,  as  far  as  Louisville.  There  he  sold  his  skiff 
to  a  man  who  wondered  at  its  curious  Indian  (!)  name  "The  Orni- 
thologist," and  set  out  on  foot  to  Lexington  and  Nashville.  He 
visited  the  Mammoth  Cave  and  sent  to  the  editor  of  the  Port- 
folio in  Philadelphia  letters  containing  a  careful  description  of 
this  and  other  interesting  points  that  he  passed  on  his  journey. 

Before  leaving  Nashville  he  wrote  to  a  friend,  "Nine  hundred 
miles  distant  from  you  sits  Wilson,  the  hunter  of  birds'  nests  and 
sparrows,  just  preparing  to  enter  on  a  wilderness  of  780  miles, — 
most  of  it  in  the  territory  of  Indians, — alone,  but  in  good  spirits, 
and  expecting  to  have  every  pocket  crammed  with  skins  of  new 
and  extraordinary  birds  before  he  reaches  the  City  of  New  Or- 
leans." 

The  territory  of  Mississippi  through  which  Wilson  traveled 
alone  on  horseback  was  then  mainly  populated  by  the  semicivilized 
Indian  tribes  which  were  afterwards  transported  to  the  present 
Indian  Territory  and  he  met  but  few  white  men.  The  route  was 
exceedingly  difficult,  being  through  dense  forests  and  "most 


ALEXANDER  WILSON  65 

execrable  swamps."  On  the  seventeenth  day  he  reached  Natchez 
and  from  there  followed  the  Mississippi  River  to  New  Orleans. 

Here  he  secured  a  substantial  addition  to  his  subscription  list 
and  sailed  for  Philadelphia,  well  satisfied  with  his  trip.  He 
skirted  but  did  not  touch  the  peninsula  of  Florida,  a  land  which 
had  he  but  known  it  would  have  yielded  him  more  novelties  than 
that  which  he  had  just  traversed. 

During  the  years  1811  and  1812  Wilson  seems  to  have  lived 
almost  continuously  at  Bartram's,  which  was  always  such  a  con- 
genial home  to  him,  and  meanwhile  the  publication  advanced 
rapidly. 

After  the  fifth  volume  was  completed  in  1812  he  went  again  to 
New  England  to  visit  his  agents  and  look  after  his  subscribers. 
Upon  his  return  he  devoted  himself  to  the  water  birds  which  he 
had  previously  somewhat  neglected  and  made  a  number  of  excur- 
sions across  the  state  of  New  Jersey  to  Egg  Harbor,  then  a  great 
resort  for  sea  birds  of  various  kinds.  Upon  these  trips  he  was 
accompanied  by  his  friend  Ord  then  about  thirty  years  of  age, 
afterwards  president  of  the  Academy  of  Natural  Sciences  of 
Philadelphia. 

About  this  time  Wilson  began  to  reap  the  rewards  of  his  labors, — 
financial  reward  there  was  apparently  none,  since  the  expense 
so  far  had  fully  equalled  the  receipts, — but  his  merit  was  gaining 
recognition. 

He  was  elected  a  member  of  the  American  Society  of  Artists  in 
1812  and  of  the  American  Philosophical  Society  and  the  recently 
formed  Academy  of  Natural  Sciences  in  the  following  year. 

During  the  summer  of  1813  owing  to  the  difficulty  of  procuring 
colorists  for  the  plates  he  attended  personally  to  much  of  this 
work  and  overtaxed  himself.  His  whole  energy  seems  to  have 
been  directed  toward  the  finishing  of  his  work.  In  July  he  writes, 
"My  eighth  volume  is  now  in  the  press  and  will  be  published  in 
November.  One  more  volume  will  complete  the  whole."  His 
constitution,  however,  which  had  always  demanded  plenty  of  out- 
door exercise  could  not  stand  this  constant  application  and  when 
shortly  after  this  he  was  stricken  with  an  attack  of  dysentery,  he 


66  LEADING  AMERICAN  MEN  OF  SCIENCE 

lacked  the  requisite  strength  to  resist  the  disease  and  after  only  a 
few  days  illness  he  died  on  August  23,  1813. 

The  premature  close  of  such  a  career  was  lamentable.  With 
fame  just  within  his  grasp  and  possibilities  of  various  kinds  before 
him,  it  is  difficult  to  say  what  Wilson  would  have  accomplished 
had  he  been  permitted  to  round  out  his  life. 

His  friend  Ord  completed  the  Ornithology  from  the  fragments 
left  by  the  author,  probably  as  faithfully  and  as  nearly  in  accord 
with  Wilson's  ideas  as  it  could  have  been  done,  and  later  published 
several  reprints.  The  revised  editions  and  further  populariza- 
tion of  the  work,  and  a  work  on  North  American  mammals,  all  of 
which  Wilson  had  in  mind,  could,  however,  be  executed  by  no  other 
hand.  Furthermore  the  existence  of  an  ornithologist  of  such  pre- 
eminent ability  must  have  exerted  a  decided  influence  upon  the 
subsequent  development  of  scientific  work  in  America  and  it  is 
impossible  to  say  what  effect  his  later  work  might  have  had  upon 
the  productions  of  those  who  succeeded  him. 

The  character  of  Alexander  Wilson,  the  man,  may  be  read  in 
the  outline  of  his  life  and  the  history  of  his  work,  but  his  friend 
Ord  has  given  us  a  sketch  of  his  personality: 

"  Wilson  was  possessed  of  the  nicest  sense  of  honor.  In  all  his 
dealings  he  was  not  only  scrupulously  just  but  highly  generous. 
His  veneration  for  truth  was  exemplary.  His  disposition  was 
social  and  affectionate.  His  benevolence  was  extensive.  He 
was  remarkably  temperate  in  eating  and  drinking,  his  love  of 
study  and  retirement  preserving  him  from  the  contaminating 
influence  of  the  convivial  circle.  But  as  no  one  is  perfect, 
Wilson  in  a  small  degree  partook  of  the  weakness  of  humanity. 
He  was  of  the  genus  irritabile,  and  was  obstinate  in  opinion.  It 
ever  gave  him  pleasure  to  acknowledge  error,  when  the  conviction 
resulted  from  his  own  judgment  alone,  but  he  could  not  endure 
to  be  told  of  his  mistakes.  Hence  his  associates  had  to  be  spar- 
ing of  their  criticisms,  through  a  fear  of  forfeiting  his  friendship. 
With  almost  all  his  friends  he  had  occasionally,  arising  from  a 
collision  of  opinion,  some  slight  misunderstanding,  which  was 
soon  passed  over,  leaving  no  disagreeable  impression.  But  an 
act  of  disrespect  he  could  ill  brook,  and  a  wilful  injury  he  would 
seldom  forgive. 


ALEXANDER  WILSON  67 

"In  his  person  he  was  of  a  middle  stature,  of  a  thin  habit 
of  body;  his  cheek  bones  projected,  and  his  eyes,  though  hollow, 
displayed  considerable  vivacity  and  intelligence;  his  complexion 
was  sallow,  his  mein  thoughtful;  his  features  were  coarse,  and 
there  was  a  dash  of  vulgarity  in  his  physiognomy,  which  struck 
the  observer  at  the  first  view,  but  which  failed  to  impress  one 
on  acquaintance.  His  walk  was  quick  when  travelling,  so  much 
so  that  it  was  difficult  for  a  companion  to  keep  pace  with  him; 
but  when  in  the  forests,  in  pursuit  of  birds,  he  was  deliberate 
and  attentive — he  was,  as  it  were,  all  eyes  and  all  ears.  Such 
was  Alexander  Wilson." 

So  far  as  we  can  learn  no  one  differed  from  the  above  estimate 
of  the  man  except  Audubon  who  charges  him  with  failure  to 
acknowledge  information  that  he  gave  him  and  with  publishing 
a  copy  of  one  of  his  drawings  without  credit.  These  claims  were 
not  made  until  after  Wilson  was  dead  and  are  so  at  variance  with 
his  character  as  depicted  by  others  that  they  would  seem  scarcely 
worthy  of  notice  were  it  not  that  so  much  has  been  made  of  them 
both  by  Audubon  and  his  biographers.  Audubon  at  several 
points  in  his  ornithological  writings  makes  sarcastic  remarks 
about  Wilson,  and  there  is  every  reason  to  believe  that  he  was 
much  embittered  at  his  failure  to  secure  a  publisher  for  his  work 
in  Philadelphia  and  New  York  owing  to  the  field  being  filled  by 
that  of  Wilson.  His  relations  with  Ord  and  other  of  Wilson's 
supporters,  moreover,  were  not  friendly,  and  these  facts  doubtless 
had  much  to  do  with  his  attacks.  The  meeting  between  the  two 
ornithologists  took  place  at  Louisville  in  March,  1810,  when  Wilson 
was  seeking  birds  and  subscribers  on  his  western  tour.  They  were 
quite  unknown  to  each  other  even  by  name  or  reputation.  Audu- 
bon at  the  time  was  only  thirty  years  of  age  and  had  no  reputation 
except  among  his  immediate  friends.  He  had  made  a  number  of 
drawings  of  birds,  but  had  no  thought  of  publishing  them.  He 
accompanied  Wilson  upon  a  day's  hunting  during  his  stay  in 
Louisville  as  Wilson  himself  states,  but  the  latter  doubtless  never 
thought  of  crediting  Audubon  with  such  observations  as  they  may 
have  made,  when  in  each  other's  company.  As  to  the  drawings, 
all  that  Wilson  made  on  this  part  of  his  trip  were  lost,  and  there  is 


68  LEADING  AMERICAN  MEN  OF  SCIENCE 

absolutely  no  reason  to  doubt  his  statement  that  he  secured  the 
small-headed  Flycatcher  as  he  described,  inasmuch  as  Ord  im- 
mediately published  the  fact  that  he  was  with  Wilson  when  he 
shot  the  bird  and  Lawson  stated  that  he  had  the  specimen  before 
him  when  engraving  Wilson's  plates.  Audubon's  memory  seems 
to  have  been  at  fault  in  this  instance,  and  his  hostility  to  Ord 
doubtless  inspired  this  and  other  reflections  on  Wilson,  as  else- 
where he  speaks  of  him  with  great  kindness. 

Wilson  entered  upon  the  production  of  his  Ornithology  with 
no  motive  other  than  the  desire  to  benefit  science,  and  he  expressed 
no  expectations  of  great  financial  profit  or  sensational  notoriety. 
He  expended  upon  the  work  all  the  money  that  he  had  and  was 
eventually  compelled  to  resign  his  position  as  editor  of  the  Encyclo- 
pedia so  engrossing  were  the  demands  of  his  own  publication. 
At  the  time  the  second  volume  was  about  ready  for  the  press  he 
wrote  to  Bartram:  "I  assure  you  my  dear  friend  that  this  under- 
taking has  involved  me  in  many  difficulties  and  expenses  which  I 
never  dreamed  of  and  I  have  never  yet  received  one  cent  from  it.  I 
am  therefore  a  volunteer  in  the  cause  of  Natural  History  impelled 
by  nobler  views  than  those  of  money."  In  the  preface  to  the 
fifth  volume,  too,  he  says:  "The  publication  of  an  original  work  of 
this  kind  in  this  country  has  been  attended  with  difficulties,  great, 
and  it  must  be  confessed  sometimes  discouraging  to  the  author 
whose  only  reward  hitherto  has  been  the  favorable  opinion  of 
his  fellow  citizens  and  the  pleasure  of  the  pursuit."  There  is  no 
evidence  that  circumstances  had  altered  at  the  time  of  his  death, 
and  though  he  speaks  with  satisfaction  of  the  approval  of  his 
friends,  his  reward  even  in  this  line  had  scarcely  begun  to  reach 
him  when  his  labors  were  so  suddenly  terminated. 

In  forming  our  estimate  of  the  value  to  science  of  Wilson's 
work  we  naturally  compare  it  with  that  of  other  ornithologists. 
Compared  with  his  predecessors,  his  chief  merit  is  originality.  He 
had  no  model  upon  which  to  build  his  Ornithology  and  was  indeed 
familiar  with  only  the  works  of  CatfisJ^y,  Latham,  TurtonJEj 
j,ndj^tf^am,  and  the  obvious  errors  which  pervaHemost  of  these 
drove  him  to  rely  only  upon  Nature  herself  for  his  facts.  He  broke 


ALEXANDER  WILSON  69 

boldly  away  from  all  the  fables  and  hearsay  reports  that  fill  the 
pages  of  the  early  writers  and  described  only  such  birds  as  he  had 
himself  seen  and  such  characteristics  of  habit  as  he  was  personally 
familiar  with  or  which  he  had  first  hand  from  reliable  observers. 

Thus  relying  wholly  upon  his  own  resources  he  produced  a 
treatise  which  at  once  placed  American  Ornithology  upon  a  firm 
basis,  and  upon  the  foundation  thus  laid  each  subsequent  writer 
from  Audubon  and  Nuttall  on,  has  simply  added  his  portion 
toward  the  completed  structure.  The  first  writer  upon  a  fauna  is 
in  a  different  position  from  any  of  those  who  come  after,  and 
can  hardly  be  fairly  compared  with  them  since  they  have  all  had 
his  work  as  a  guide. 

In  the  case  of  Alexander  Wilson  we  find  him  most  frequently 
compared  with  Audubon,  since  their  works  were  of  essentially 
the  same  compass.  From  an  artistic  standpoint  Audubon's 
work  is  far  superior;  he  was  preeminently  an  artist,  both  by 
birth  and  education,  while  Wilson  made  no  pretensions  to  art; 
but  as  a  scientific  work  so  far  as  the  country  covered  by  Wilson 
is  concerned  it  added  but  little  to  Wilson's  accounts,  and  this  in 
spite  of  the  fact  that  the  latter's  bird  studies  covered  but  ten 
years,  while  Audubon  had  devoted  thirty  years  to  the  study 
before  he  began  publication.  Indeed,  to  the  present  day  but 
twenty-three  indigenous  land  birds  from  east  of  the  Alleghanies 
and  north  of  Florida  have  been  added  to  Wilson's  list. 

To  give  some  idea  of  the  rank  of  Wilson's  work  with  the  scien-^\ 
tific  publications  of  the  time  we  may  quote  Baron  Cuvier  to  the 
effect  that  "he  has  treated  of  American  birds  better  than  those  of     j 
Europe  have  yet  been  treated."    The  impetus  that  such  a  work,     / 
produced  in  America  and  by  the  support  of  American  subscribers 
must  have  given  to  American  science  is  hard  to  estimate,  as  is  also    I 
the  attention  which  it  must  have  directed  toward  America  as  a 
country  which  not  only  possessed  a  rich  fauna  and  flora  but  which 
gave  promise  of  producing  men  thoroughly  capable  of  making 
known  its  riches  to  the  scientific  world  and  among  the  van  of  this 
assemblage  stands  Alexander  Wilson,  a  Scotchman  by  birth  but 
an  American  in  his  interests  and  sympathies. 


AA**-j&.  r^t^-fa 

>  •:;:/     / 


/  / 


JOHN  JAMES  AUDUBON 

ORNITHOLOGIST 

1780-1851 
BY  WITHER  STONE 

PROBABLY  no  name  is  more  nearly  synonymous  with  the  study 
of  birds  than  that  of  Audubon,  and  no  ornithologist  is  more  widely 
known.    In  science  and  literature  as  well  as  in  other  fields  noto- 
riety is  due  either  to  the  personality  of  the  man  or  to  the  workj* 
which  he  has  accomplished,  while  in  certain  cases  both  contribute  H 
to  his  fame.    Audubon  is  a  striking  example  of  this,  and  the  aid  = 
that  he  gave  to  the  development  of  American  Ornithology  rests 
quite  as  much  upon  his  striking  personality  and  the  unique  char- 
acter of  his  bird  portraits  as  upon  the  actual  scientific  value  of 
the  labors  that  he  performed. 

We  cannot,  therefore,  form  an  estimate  of  his  relative  position 
in  the  world  of  science  without  a  careful  consideration  of  Andiron, 
theman  as  well  as  of  Audubon  the  ornithologist. 

Unfortunately  no  one  who  knew  him  well  has  given  us  a  careful 
review  of  his  life  and  character  and  consequently  we  are  compelled 
to  fall  back  upon  an  autobiography  covering  his  early  life,  written 
for  his  children  and  upon  his  journals  for  the  history  of  his  later 
achievements. 

It  seems  somewhat  characteristic  of  the  man  that  he  does  not 
state  when  he  was  born  and  such  mentions  as  he  makes  of  his  age 
are  at  variance,  so  that  his  granddaughter  states  in  her  sketch  of 
his  life  "he  may  have  been  born  anywhere  between  1772  and 
J783  ";  the  usually  accepted  date  is,  however,  May  5,  1780. 

His  father,  Jean  Audubon,  an  admiral  in  the  French  navy,  was  a 
man  of  wide  experience.  He  rose  entirely  through  his  own  exer- 


72  LEADING  AMERICAN  MEN  OF  SCIENCE 

tions,  having  shipped  on  a  fishing  vessel  at  the  age  of  twelve  and 
later  commanded  trading  vessels  until  entering  the  service  of  his 
country.  He  prospered,  too,  and  finally  became  possessed  of  es- 
tates in  France  and  Santo  Domingo,  besides  a  farm  in  Pennsyl- 
vania. On  one  of  his  excursions  from  his  Santo  Domingo  estates 
to  Louisiana,  then  a  French  territory,  the  elder  Audubon  married 
a  lady  of  Spanish  descent  who  became  the  mother  of  the  ornitholo- 
gist. Returning  to  Santo  Domingo  soon  after  his  birth,  the  mother 
perished  in  the  negro  uprising  on  the  island  while  the  father  and 
infant  son  escaped  and  made  their  way  back  to  France.  In  a  few 
years  the  father  was  married  again  to  Anne  Moynette. 

Under  the  care  of  his  stepmother  young  Audubon  seems  to 
have  enjoyed  every  pleasure  that  youth  could  wish;  she  "was 
desirous,"  he  writes,  "that  I  should  be  brought  up  to  live  and  die 
like  a  gentleman,  thinking  that  fine  clothes  and  filled  pockets 
were  the  only  requisites  needful  to  attain  this  end.  She  therefore 
completely  spoiled  me,  hid  my  faults,  boasted  to  every  one  of  my 
youthful  merits  and  more  than  all  frequently  said  in  my  presence 
that  I  was  the  handsomest  boy  in  France.  All  my  wishes  and  idle 
notions  were  at  once  gratified  so  far  as  actually  to  give  me  carte 
blanche  at  all  the  confectionary  shops  in  the  town  and  also  of  the 
village  of  Coneron  when  during  the  summer  we  lived,  as  it  were,  in 
the  country." 

Audubon's  father  having  himself  suffered  from  lack  of  educa- 
tional advantages  realized  the  importance  of  their  cultivation  on 
the  part  of  his  son  whom  he  destined  for  the  navy.  School,  how- 
ever, had  no  attractions  for  the  boy.  He  says:  "I  studied  drawing, 
geography,  mathematics,  fencing,  etc.,  as  well  as  music  for  which 
I  had  considerable  talent.  I  had  a  good  fencing  master  and  a 
first  rate  teacher  of  the  violin,  mathematics  was  hard  dull  work, 
I  thought;  geography  pleased  me  more.  .  .  .  My  mother  suffered 
me  to  do  much  as  I  pleased  and  it  was  not  to  be  wondered  at  that 
instead  of  applying  closely  to  my  studies  I  preferred  associating 
with  boys  of  my  own  age  and  disposition  who  were  more  fond  of 
going  in  search  of  birds*  nests,  fishing,  or  shooting,  than  of  better 
studies." 


JOHN  JAMES  AUDUBON  73 

The  mania  for  rambling  about  the  country  and  collecting  curiosi- 
ties seemed  to  increase,  and  upon  the  return  of  his  father  from  a 
cruise  abroad,  Audubon  was  taken  under  his  personal  care. 
Studies  now  became  more  obligatory,  but  without  any  marked 
increase  of  interest  upon  his  part  or  any  lessening  of  his  love  of 
outdoor  life.  At  this  period  of  his  life  he  states  that  he  had  made 
some  drawings  of  French  birds  but  apparently  without  any  thought 
or  interest  in  ornithology,  and  simply  because  they  appealed  to 
him  as  subjects  upon  which  to  exercise  his  artistic  skill. 

When  somewhat  over  seventeen  years  of  age  Audubon  was  sent 
to  America  to  look  after  the  Pennsylvania  estate  at  Mill  Grove  on 
the  Perkiomen  not  far  from  its  juncture  with  the  Schuylkill.  His 
father  it  seems  despaired  of  making  a  student  of  him  or  of  inter- 
esting him  in  the  career  that  he  had  planned  for  him  and  thinking 
him  old  enough  to  enter  seriously  upon  life  intrusted  him  with 
the  responsibility  of  his  American  property. 

Audubon  experienced  a  severe  attack  of  sickness  upon  reaching 
New  York  and  after  his  recovery  was  temporarily  the  guest  of  his 
father's  agent,  Miers  Fisher,  a  Philadelphia  Quaker,  whose  tastes 
it  may  be  imagined  were  totally  different  from  those  of  the  gay 
young  Frenchman — in  fact  to  quote  Audubon  "he  was  opposed 
to  music  of  all  description,  as  well  as  to  dancing,  could  not  bear 
me  to  carry  a  gun  or  fishing  rod  and  indeed  condoned  most  of  my 
amusements." 

After  a  short  period  of  restless  toleration  of  his  uncongenial 
surroundings  Audubon  was  established  as  his  own  master  on  the 
Mill  Grove  estate.  Here,  surrounded  by  nature,  he  indulged  to 
his  heart's  content  all  the  pleasures  that  he  so  enjoyed.  He  de- 
scribes himself  at  this  time  as  "extremely  extravagant."  "I  had 
no  vices,"  he  says,  "it  is  true,  neither  had  I  any  high  aims.  I  was 
ever  fond  of  shooting,  fishing  and  riding  on  horse-back ;  the  raising 
of  fowls  of  every  sort  was  one  of  my  hobbies,  and  to  reach  the  maxi- 
mum of  my  desires  in  those  different  things  filled  every  one  of  my 
thoughts.  I  was  ridiculously  fond  of  dress.  To  have  seen  me 
going  shooting  in  black  satin  small  clothes,  or  breeches,  with 
silk  stockings,  and  the  finest  ruffled  shirt  Philadelphia  could 


74  LEADING  AMERICAN  MEN  OF  SCIENCE 

afford,  was,  as  I  now  realize,  an  absurd  spectacle  but  it  was  one  of 
my  many  foibles  and  I  cannot  conceal  it.  I  purchased  the  best 
horses  in  the  country,  and  rode  well,  and  felt  proud  of  it;  my  guns 
and  fishing  tackle  were  equally  good,  always  expensive  and  richly 
ornamented,  often  with  silver.  Indeed,  though  in  America,  I  cut 
as  many  foolish  pranks  as  a  young  dandy  in  Bond  Street  or  Pic- 
cadilly." 

Audubon  spent  much  of  his  time  with  brush  and  pencil  and 
many  of  his  drawings  at  Mill  Grove  were  of  birds,  which  con- 
tinued to  attract  his  attention,  although  he  had  apparently  no 
more  scientific  interest  in  them  than  when  a  boy  in  France,  and  it 
was  their  portraiture  that  chiefly  concerned  him. 

After  a  short  time  the  elder  Audubon  sent  over  from  France  as 
a  partner  and  partial  guardian  a  man  by  the  name  of  Da  Costa 
who  soon  managed  to  get  the  control  of  affairs  at  Mill  Grove 
almost  entirely  into  his  own  hands  and  proved  to  be  such  a  rascal 
that  Audubon  was  forced  to  seek  the  aid  of  friends  in  order  to 
obtain  passage  to  France,  to  inform  his  father  of  the  true  character 
of  the  man  under  whose  authority  he  had  been  placed.  Having 
secured  the  discharge  of  the  objectionable  guardian  he  remained 
for  two  years  with  his  parents  "in  the  very  lap  of  comfort"  shoot- 
ing and  drawing  zoological  subjects,  especially  birds.  A  matter  of 
much  moment  which  was  also  settled  during  his  visit  to  France 
was  the  approval  of  his  proposed  marriage  to  Miss  Lucy  Bakewell, 
the  daughter  of  a  neighbor  at  Mill  Grove,  to  whom  he  had  be- 
come deeply  attached. 

Audubon  returned  to  America  in  1806  in  company  with  Ferdi- 
nand Rozier  whom  his  father  had  selected  as  his  future  business 
partner. 

A  brief  mercantile  experience  in  the  office  of  Miss  Bakewell's 
uncle  gave  Audubon  "some  smattering  of  business"  as  he  terms 
it,  which  his  future  father-in-law  thought  very  important,  if  he 
contemplated  the  support  of  a  wife,  but  which  Audubon  found 
very  uncongenial.  This  over  and  impatient  to  seek  his  fortune 
he  was  married  on  April  8,  1808,  and  set  out  from  Mill  Grove 
accompanied  by  his  wife  and  his  business  partner  and  provided 


JOHN  JAMES  AUDUBON  75 

with  a  stock  of  goods  with  which  to  establish  a  general  store  in 
the  west.  Louisville,  Ky.,  was  his  objective  point,  having  been 
much  impressed  with  the  opportunities  offered  by  the  town  when 
on  a  brief  visit  some  two  years  before. 

The  party  journeyed  across  to  Pittsburg  and  down  the  Ohio 
by  boat  and  saw  only  success  and  prosperity  for  the  future  in 
that  great  country,  the  development  of  which  was  only  just  begin- 
ning. 

The  business  prospered,  as  Audubon  says,  "when  I  attended 
to  it,"  "but  birds  were  birds  then  as  now  and  my  thoughts  were 
ever  and  anon  turning  toward  them  as  the  objects  of  my  greatest 
delight.  I  shot,  I  drew,  I  looked  on  nature  only;  my  days  were 
happy  beyond  human  conception  and  beyond  this  I  really  cared 
not  .  .  .  and  I  could  not  bear  to  give  the  attention  required  by 
my  business." 

While  Rozier  was  content  behind  the  counter  Audubon  made 
the  necessary  trips  to  New  York  and  Philadelphia  for  fresh  sup- 
plies of  goods,  and  the  varied  scenery  of  river  and  mountain  and 
the  birds  and  other  wild  tenants  of  the  forests  of  Ohio  and  Pennsyl- 
vania rendered  these  trips  periods  of  constant  delight. 

In  1810  longing  for  wilder  surroundings  the  business  was 
removed  to  Henderson,  Ky.,  one  hundred  and  twenty-five  miles 
down  the  Ohio,  and  here  it  was  the  same  old  story;  Rozier  con- 
ducted the  store  and  Audubon  spent  his  time  hunting  and  fishing 
and  in  this  way  gratified  his  tastes  while  he  also  contributed  not  a 
little  to  the  support  of  the  family.  But  business  at  Henderson 
was  not  very  prosperous  and  another  move  was  made,  this  time 
to  St.  Genevieve,  a  French  settlement  on  the  Mississippi.  Here 
Audubon  became  very  discontented  while  Rozier  was  delighted, 
the  people  being  congenial  to  him  and  the  business  prosperous. 
The  outcome  of  it  was  that  Audubon  sold  out  all  his  interests  to 
his  partner  on  April  n,  1811,  and  journeyed  back  across  the  prairie 
to  Henderson  where  he  had  left  his  wife  and  child,  happy  in  his 
freedom  from  all  business  cares,  and  sanguine  as  he  always  was 
when  the  immediate  future  was  provided  for. 

Two  incidents  of  this  early  business  career  deserve  mention. 


I 


76  LEADING  AMERICAN  MEN  OF  SCIENCE 

/While  at  Louisville  in  March,  1810,  there  walked  into  the  store 
one  day  Alexander  Wilson,  then  on  a  canvassing  trip  through  the 
west.  Audubon  saw  for  the  first  time  a  volume  of  the  American 
Ornithology  and  in  return  showed  to  Wilson  his  own  drawings 
of  birds.  What  were  the  feelings  of  the  two  men  ?  who  can  tell  ? 
Wilson  made  very  little  mention  of  the  meeting  in  his  diary,  while 
Audubon  years  later  made  charges  of  plagiarism  against  Wilson 
which  seem  not  to  accord  with  the  facts  and  make  a  disagreeable 

/    incident  in  the  history  of  American  ornithology.     It  would  be 

/     interesting  to  know  what  part  this  chance  interview  with  Wilson 
and  the  sight  of  his  book  played  in  the  ultimate  determination  of 

\     Audubon  to  publish  his  own  drawings.    Up  to  this  time  he  cer- 

i    tainly  seems  to  have  entertained  no  such  idea. 

An  equally  important  incident,  although  it  came  to  nothing,  was 
Audubon's  application  for  a  position  on  the  Lewis  and  Clark 
expedition.  It  is  hard  to  suggest  what  influence  the  presence  of 
a  man  of  his  attainments  would  have  had  upon  the  scientific 
results  of  this  historic  exploration. 

Besides  Audubon's  association  with  Rozier  he  was  also  a  partner 
in  the  business  of  his  brother-in-law,  Thomas  W.  Bakewell,  at 
New  Orleans  and  about  this  time  this  venture  failed,  thus  reducing 
Audubon's  means  materially.  He  now  determined  upon  a  journey 
back  to  Pennsylvania  and  traveled  on  horseback  through  Ten- 
nessee and  Georgia  and  thence  north  to  his  old  home.  Here  he 
found  that  his  Mill  Grove  property  had  been  sold  by  his  father-in- 
law  and  upon  receiving  the  sum  that  had  been  realized  he  returned 
to  Henderson  and  again  engaged  in  business.  For  the  time  he 
prospered,  but  he  had  no  judgment  in  commerical  affairs;  new 
partners  and  new  ventures  were  rapidly  followed  by  new  mis- 
fortunes and  before  long  everything  had  to  be  relinquished  to  the 
creditors  of  the  company  and  Audubon  was  left  penniless.  "  With- 
out a  dollar  in  the  world,"  he  says,  "bereft  of  all  revenues  beyond 
my  own  personal  talents  and  acquirements,  I  left  my  dear  log 
house,  my  delightful  garden  and  orchards,  with  that  heaviest  of 
burdens,  a  heavy  heart,  and  turned  my  face  toward  Louisville. 
This  was  the  saddest  of  all  my  journeys, — the  only  time  in  my 


JOHN  JAMES  AUDUBON  77 

life  when  the  Wild  Turkeys  that  so  often  crossed  my  path,  and  the 
thousands  of  lesser  birds  that  enlivened  the  woods  and  the  prairies 
all  looked  like  enemies,  and  I  turned  my  eyes  from  them,  as  if  I 
could  have  wished  that  they  had  never  existed." 

This  financial  calamity  seems  to  mark  the  turning  point  in 
Audubon's  career  for  although  prosperity  did  not  come  to  him  for 
some  years  he  was  at  once  forced  through  necessity  to  make  use 
of  his  real  talents  instead  of  engaging  in  business  for  which  he  had 
neither  taste  nor  ability.  He  began  to  draw  portraits  in  black 
chalk  and  succeeded  so  well  that  he  soon  gained  great  popularity 
and  was  enabled  to  settle  in  Louisville. 

One  possession  with  which  both  Audubon  and  his  wife  were 
endowed  and  the  value  of  whicb^  ran  harrfly  be  estimated  was  a 
charming  personality  ^everywhere  they  made  friendsjnot  merely 
"acquaintances  but  friends  who  were  only  too  glad  to  render  them 
every  assistance  in  their  power,  and  in  the  period  of  adversity 
which  came  to  them  during  the  years  1818  and  1819,  and  at  other 
times  later  on,  they  owed  not  a  little  to  the  generosity  of  their 
friends. 

The  year  1818  found  the  family  in  Cincinnati  where  Audubon 
was  engaged  at  the  museum  in  stuffing  birds,  an  occupation  which 
he  continued  for  only  six  months  owing  to  the  failure  of  the  au- 
thorities to  furnish  him  the  promised  remuneration.  He  now  fell 
back  upon  his  pencil  and  gave  lessons  in  drawing,  while  he  was 
actually  forced  to  depend  to  some  extent  upon  his  gun  to  supply 
his  table. 

A  sedentary  life  had  no  attractions  for  Audubon  and  he  could 
never  remain  long  in  one  place  without  experiencing  the  restless 
desire  to  be  again  roaming  the  forest  and  sooner  or  later  he  suc- 
cumbed. So  now  after  a  couple  of  years  he  determined  on  a  trip 
southward  to  New  Orleans.  His  wife  was  established  with  kind 
friends  in  Cincinnati  and  was  supporting  herself  in  part  by  teach- 

ring.  In  such  sympathy  was  she  with  his  undertakings  and  with 
such  confidence  in  his  ultimate  success  in  anything  he  attempted 
that  she  was  ever  willing  to  sacrifice  personal  comforts  rather 
than  prove  an  obstacle  to  his  plans, 


78  LEADING  AMERICAN  MEN  OF  SCIENCE 

As  has  already  been  stated,  Audubon  had  always  been  interested 
in  drawing  birds.  His  early  efforts  represented  the  birds  suspended 
as  dead  game,  but  later  he  depicted  them  in  life-like  attitudes. 
Ever  since  coming  west  he  had  been  drawing  every  variety  of 
bird  that  he  came  across  and  had  accumulated  quite  a  collection. 
Just  when  he  conceived  the  idea  of  publishing  these  drawings  it 
f  is  hard  to  say;  he  himself  states  that  it  was  not  until  he  met  Charles 
s,  Bonaparte^ in^Philadelphia  in  1824,  but  there  is  reason  to  think 
that  he  had  the  publication  in  mind  before  this  time.  However 
this  maybehe  made  this  trip  to  New  Orleans  primarily  with  the 
idea  of  adding  to  his  collection  the  many  new  varieties  of  birds 
that  he  felt  sure  must  exist  in  the  swamps  and  cane-brakes  of  the 
south  and  in  the  state  which  was  ever  dear  to  him  as  his  birthplace. 

Reaching  New  Orleans  in  the  winter  of  1820-21  he  spent  a 
whole  year  in  rambling  about  the  country  and  drawing  the  birds 
that  he  procured,  while  he  supported  himself  by  drawing  portraits. 
The  next  year  he  was  joined  by  his  family  and  gave  lessons  in 
drawing  while  he  and  his  wife  filled  positions  as  tutors  both  at 
New  Orleans  and  Natchez.  In  this  period,  too,  Audubon  made 
his  first  attempt  at  painting  in  oils,  being  instructed  by  a  traveling 
portrait  painter,  one  John  Stein. 

In  January,  1823,  the  family  were  forced  to  separate  for  a  time, 
Mrs.  Audubon  going  with  her  younger  son  John  to  live  on  the 
plantation  of  a  Mrs.  Percy  at  Bayou  Sara  where  she  was  to  act 
as  governess  to  her  small  daughter.  Audubon  and  his  son  Victor 
traveled  about  the  country  for  a  time  with  the  artist  Stein,  support- 
ing themselves  by  painting  portraits,  but  at  the  approach  of  winter 
established  themselves  at  Shipping  Port,  Ky.,  where  Victor  entered 
the  counting-house  of  his  uncle  Mr.  Berthond. 

March.  i82d»_mEjks  a  critical  point  in  Auduboii!s-lif£.  In  this 
month  he  made  a  journey  to  Philadelphia  taking  with  him  his 
drawings  of  birds  and  there  for  the  first  time  introduced  them  to 
the  scientific  world,  and  seriously  discussed  the  possibility  and 
best  method  of  securing  their  publication.  He  could  hardly  have 
come  to  a  less  sympathetic  community.  Philadelphia  had  been 
Wilson's  home  and  his  memory  was  still  fresh  in  the  minds  of  the 


JOHN  JAMES  AUDUBON  79 

scientific  men;  a  continuation  and  a  new  edition  of  his  Ornithology 
were  at  that  very  time  being  published  and  it  is  not  surprising 
that  another  aspirant  to  ornithological  fame  should  be  looked 
upon  by  many  with  rather  small  favor.  Furthermore,  the  diffi- 
culties that  Wilson  had  encountered  in  publishing  his  work  were 
well  known  and  the  far  greater  size  of  Audubon's  plates  made 
their  publication  seem  well-nigh  impossible  even  to  those  who  were 
entirely  in  sympathy  with  the  undertaking.  It  is  not  surprising 
that  Audubon,  full  of  enthusiasm  and  lacking  in  experience,  was 
much  disheartened.  But  this  visit  in  spite  of  its  discouragements 
was  of  vast  benefit  to  the  artist-naturalist.  He  made  the  acquaint- 
ance of  Charles  Lucien  Bonaparte.  Edward  Harris.  Richard 
Harlaji,  George  Orel.  Charles  A.  LeSueur  and_other  members 
of  the  Academy  of  Natural  Sciences,  several  oF  whom  became 
his  close  friends.  Harris,  especially,  proved  not  only  a  friend  but 
on  many  occasions  a  benefactor  both  to  Audubon  and  to  his  wife. 
He  was  a  wealthy  and  generous  man  and  an  ornithologist  of  no 
mean  ability,  and  the  admiration  that  he  felt  for  Audubon  and  the 
unselfish  interest  in  the  successful  outcome  of  his  undertaking 
have  seldom  been  paralleled.  Ord  on  the  contrary  became  one 
of  Audubon's  bitterest  enemies7*"T5e  had  been  the  close  friend 
of  Alexander  Wjlsoji,  and  was  at  the  time  of  Audubon's  visit  to 
Philadelphia  publishing  another  edition  of  the  American  Ornithol- 
ogy, so  that  the  prospect  of  a  work  so  much  more  elaborate  as 
Audubon's  promised  to  be  no  doubt  aroused  his  jealousy.  At  the 
same  time  Ord's  criticism  seems  to  have  been  sincere.  We  must 
remember,  that  Audubon  was  at  this  time  in  no  sense  a  scientific 
man,  but  an  artist  with  a  strong  love  of  nature  and  with  a  temper- 
ament derived  perhaps  from  his  French  ancestry,  which  impressed 
his  writings  and  perhaps  his  speech  with  a  somewhat  careless  ex- 
aggeration of  style  that  did  not  at  all  appeal  to  Ord  who  was  of 
the  qyart  r1nfTayja^ujflfe{  tvpf^  Audubon  loathed  the  science  of 
the  museums  and  nis  knowledge  of  birds  was  what  he  derived 
from  close  association  with  them  in  the  forest.  It  is  therefore 
little  to  be  wondered  that  Ord  while  he  may  have  conceded  Audu- 
bon's artistic  talents,  resented  his  reception  as  an  "ornithologist" 


8o  LEADING  AMERICAN  MEN  OF  SCIENCE 

as  the  term  was  then  understood.  Indeed,  John  Cassin  who  was 
of  much  the  same  school  as  Ord  says  of  Audubon  upon  meeting 
him  many  years  later,  "I  do  not  particularly  admire  him,  he  is 
no  naturalist, — positively  not  by  nature,  but  an  artist,  no  reason- 
able doubt  of  it! 1  " 

It  was  in  art  circles  that  Audubon  profited  most  during  the  five 
months  that  he  remained  in  Philadelphia.  He  took  lessons  from 
Thomas  Sully  and  saw  much  of  Rembrandt  Peale  for  both  of 
whom  he  had  a  high  regard. 

Passing  on  to  New  York  he  was  much  more  enthusiastically 
received  but  got  no  more  encouragement  in  the  project  that  he 
had  in  view  than  he  did  in  Philadelphia,  and  thoroughly  convinced 
of  the  impossibility  of  publishing  his  plates  in  America,  he  deter- 
mined to  abandon  the  attempt  until  his  resources  would  permit 
of  his  going  to  Europe. 

Returning  to  Bayou  Sara  after  a  trip  along  the  great  lakes  he 
set  about  painting  and  giving  lessons  in  drawing,  music  and  danc- 
ing and  endeavored  by  every  means  in  his  power  to  raise  money. 
His  success  was  phenomenal  and  his  wife  contributing  her  savings 
to  his  fund,  he  was  enabled  to  realize  his  hopes  and  sailed  from 
New  Orleans  April  26,  1826,  with  his  precious  paintings. 

He  spent  just  three  years  in  England  and  Scotland  and  accom- 
plished much.  His  striking  personality  and  the  size  and  orginality 
of  his  bird  paintings  attracted  wide  attention.  He  exhibited  them 
at  various  places  and  realized  considerable  profit  from  the  admis- 
sion fees,  while  he  sold  a  large  number  of  oil  paintings  and  so 
managed  to  support  himself.  After  some  difficulty  he  arranged 
for  the  engraving  and  coloring  of  the  sample  plates  and  secured 
enough  subscribers  to  warrant  the  continuation  of  the  work. 

Mr.  Lizars  of  Edinburgh,  the  engraver  of  the  plates  for  Selby's 
British  Birds  engraved  the  first  plates  of  Audubon's  work,  but  the 
main  portion  of  them  was  done  by  Havell  of  London.  By  the 
close  of  the  year  1830,  one  hundred  plates  had  been  issued.  They 
were  elephant  folio,  about  three  by  two  and  a  half  feet,  large  enough 
to  allow  of  the  presentation  of  all  the  birds  natural  size,  and  with 
1  Letter  to  Spencer  F.  Baird. 


JOHN  JAMES  AUDUBON  81 

each  a  branch  or  spray  of  some  tree  or  plant.  Five  plates  formed 
a  "part"  and  there  was  no  text  save  the  name  of  the  bird  and 
plant. 

Audubon  made  friends  everywhere  as  he  had  done  in  America 
and  there  was  wide-spread  interest  in  the  success  of  his  publica- 
tion as  well  as  wonder  at  his  undertaking  such  an  enormous  task. 

He  says,  "My  success  in  Edinburgh  borders  on  the  miraculous. 
I  am  feted,  feasted,  elected  honorary  member  of  societies,  making 
money  by  my  exhibition  and  my  paintings.  It  is  Mr.  Audubon 
here  and  Mr.  Audubon  there  and  I  can  only  hope  that  Mr.  Audu- 
bon will  not  be  made  a  conceited  fool  at  last."  He  met  all  the 
prominent  scientific  men  of  England  and  Scotland  as  well  as  many 
other  celebrities,  such  as  Sir  Walter  Scott  and  Sir  Thomas  Law- 
rence, while  during  a  brief  canvassing  trip  to  France  in  1828  he 
made  the  acquaintance  of  Cuvier,  Geoffrey  St.-Hilaire  and  many 
other  savants  as  well  as  the  Due  d' Orleans. 

While  admirers  were  plentiful,  subscribers  as  usual  were  scarce; 
hard  to  get  and  harder  still  to  keep,  and  the  ornithologist  was 
continually  reduced  to  such  straits  that  he  was  forced  to  paint 
pictures  and  sell  them  at  the  shops  in  order  to  meet  the  cost  of  his 
publication. 

Returning  to  America  in  the  spring  of  1829  he  spent  a  year  in 
collecting  and  painting  such  birds  as  he  had  not  already  procured, 
passing  most  of  his  time  in  Pennsylvania  and  New  Jersey.  Upon 
the  approach  of  winter  he  joined  his  wife  in  Louisiana  and  the 
following  April  sailed  with  her  for  England. 

He  returned  to  America  twice  more  during  the  publication  of 
the  work  to  procure  additional  material,  one  visit  lasting  from 
August,  1831,  to  April,  1834,  and  the  other  from  July,  1836,  to 
the  following  summer. 

During  the  first  period  he  visited  Florida,  New  Brunswick  and 
Labrador  and  spent  considerable  time  with  his  friend  Rev.  John 
Bachman  at  Charleston,  S.  C.,  whom  he  first  met  in  October,  1831, 
and  who  later  became  related  through  the  marriage  of  his  daughters 
to  Audubon's  sons. 

On  his  second  trip  besides  stopping  with  Bachman  he  visited 


82  LEADING  AMERICAN  MEN  OF  SCIENCE 

the  Gulf  of  Mexico  in  company  with  Edward  Harris,  cruising 
along  the  coast  as  far  as  Galveston,  Texas. 

Victor  Audubon  was  sent  to  England  to  superintend  the  publica- 
tion of  the  work  during  his  father's  absence  in  October,  1832,  and 
under  his  direction  it  went  steadily  on.  The  letter  press  was 
begun  in  October,  1830,  under  the  title  of  the  Ornithological 
Biography  and  kept  pace  with  the  issue  of  the  plates  so  that  the 
two  were  finished  at  nearly  the  same  time,  the  last  volume  of  the 
letter  press  in  1839  and  the  last  fascicle  of  plates,  the  eighty-seventh, 
on  June  30,  1838. 

The  great  work  completed,  the  family  had  no  particular  object 
in  remaining  longer  in  England  and  toward  the  close  of  1839  they 
all  returned  to  New  York.  While  Audubon  had  most  friendly 
feelings  toward  England  and  Scotland  as  it  was  there  that  the 
publication  of  his  work  was  made  possible,  he  nevertheless  always 
looked  upon  America  as  his  country  and  his  home. 

The  family  at  last  in  comfortable  circumstances  purchased  an 
estate  known  now  as  Audubon  Park,  and  included  within  the 
city  limits  of  New  York,  but  at  that  time  far  removed  from  the 
city  and  surrounded  by  woodland  except  where  it  stretched  down 
to  the  sandy  shore  of  the  Hudson.  Here  Audubon  and  his  wife, 
his  sons  *  and  their  families  lived  together  and  carried  on  the  pub- 
lication of  the  other  works  which  bear  the  name  of  the  great 
naturalist.  Both  sons  inherited  their  father's  artistic  ability  and 
upon  them  devolved  a  large  part  of  the  work. 

First  there  was  published  an  octavo  edition  of  the  plates  accom- 
panied by  the  original  letter  press  but  all  arranged  in  systematic 
order.  This  was  followed  by  the  great  work  on  the  Quadrupeds 
of  America  which  was  prepared  in  conjunction  with  Bachman. 

Before  the  preparations  for  this  work  were  fairly  under  way  the 
old  spirit  of  unrest  which  had  characterized  the  whole  life  of  the 
naturalist  again  made  its  appearance.  It  seemed  as  if  he  could 
not  settle  down,  he  longed  to  penetrate  the  wilds  of  the  far  west 
where  his  mind's  eye  saw  endless  new  birds  and  quadrupeds.  He 
had  procured  from  John  K.  Townsend,  a  Philadelphian  orni- 
1  Both  had  been  left  widowers  and  had  married  again. 


JOHN  JAMES  AUDUBON  83 

thologist  who  crossed  the  continent  in  1834,  many  new  birds  which 
were  figured  in  various  volumes  of  his  great  work  and  he  had  al- 
ways longed  to  see  for  himself  some  of  the  feathered  inhabitants  of 
the  wonderful  country  that  stretched  away  beyond  the  Mississippi. 
So  in  1843,  overcoming  the  scruples  of  his  friends  and  relatives 
who  thought  him  too  old  for  such  an  extended  journey,  he  started 
via  St.  Louis  and  up  the  Missouri,  on  one  of  the  American  Fur 
Company's  boats  for  Ft.  Union  on  the  eastern  boundary  of  the 
present  state  of  Montana.  His  friend  Harris  accompanied  him 
and  acted  as  general  financial  manager  of  the  expedition.  John 
G.  Bell,  the  taxidermist,  Isaac  Sprague  and  Lewis  Squires  made 
up  the  party. 

Spencer  F.  Baird,  afterward  secretary  of  the  Smithsonian 
Institution,  but  then  a  young  man,  had  recently  become  acquainted 
with  Audubon  and  was  asked  to  accompany  him  but  decided  not 
to  go. 

The  expedition  was  eminently  successful  and  many  specimens 
of  birds  and  quadrupeds  were  secured. 

In  1846,  Audubon  began  to  show  signs  of  physical  failure.  Dr. 
Brewer  says  of  him  at  this  time,  "The  patriarch  had  greatly 
changed  since  I  had  last  seen  him.  He  wore  his  hair  longer  and 
it  now  hung  down  in  locks  of  snowy  whiteness  on  his  shoulders. 
His  once  piercing  gray  eyes,  though  still  bright,  had  already  begun 
to  fail  him.  He  could  no  longer  paint  with  his  wonted  accuracy, 
and  had  at  last  most  reluctantly  been  forced  to  surrender  to  his 
sons  the  task  of  completing  the  illustrations  to  the  Quadrupeds  of 
North  America.  Surrounded  by  his  large  family,  including  his 
devoted  wife,  his  two  sons  with  their  wives  and  a  troop  of  grand- 
children, his  enjoyments  of  life  seemed  to  leave  him  little  to  de- 
sire. ...  A  pleasanter  scene,  or  a  more  interesting  household  it 
has  never  been  the  writer's  good  fortune  to  witness." 

His  son  John  Woodhouse  did  the  remaining  plates  of  the  Quad- 
rupeds, while  Bachman  wrote  a  large  portion  and  edited  all  of  the 
text  of  the  work. 

By  1848,  the  mind  of  the  ornithologist  had  failed.  He  experi- 
enced no  period  of  invalidism,  but  during  the  next  three  years  his 


* 


84  LEADING  AMERICAN  MEN  OF  SCIENCE 

strength  gradually  ebbed  away  until  on  January  27,  1851,  when 
surrounded  by  his  family  his  eventful  life  came  peacefully  to  an 
end. 

It  will  be  seen  that  Audubon's  contribution  to  science  is  practi- 
•  ^  cally  embodied  in  the  Birds  of  America  and  the  Ornithological 
*^Biography  ;  the  Quadrupeds  being  only  a  joint  production,  with 
Bachman  as  the  chief  scientific  contributor.    Futhermore,  the  two 
works,  the  former  all  plates,  the  latter  all  text,  represent  the  two 
sides  of  the  man  or  rather  his  two  consuming  interests. 

From  the  outset  his  main  thought  seems  to  have  been  the  publi- 
cation of  his  paintings,  the  characterization  of  the  new  species 
being  of  secondary  consideration.  He  tells  us  in  his  journal  how 
Bonaparte  looking  over  his  drawings  picked  out  the  species  that 
were  new  to  science  and  penciled  suitable  names  on  them  urging 
Audubon  to  publish  them  at  once  in  some  journal  so  that  he 
should  ensure  credit  for  his  discoveries,  but  the  suggestion  availed 
nothing  and  he  says  in  another  connection,  "I  do  not  claim  any 
merit  for  these  discoveries  and  should  have  liked  as  well  that  the 
objects  of  them  had  been  previously  known  as  this  would  have 
saved  some  unbelievers  the  trouble  of  searching  for  them  in  books 
and  the  disappointment  of  finding  them  actually  new.  I  assure 
you  that  I  should  have  less  pleasure  in  presenting  to  the  scientific 
world  a  new  bird  the  knowledge  of  whose  habits  I  do  not  possess, 
*•  than  in  describing  the  habits  of  one  long  since  discovered." 
"*k  Therefore  to  his  mind  the  first  task  was  the  publication  of  the 
{A  plates,  the  work  of  Audubon,  the  artist.  These  plates  constitute 

^^as  has  been  said  the  "jprpatqst  tr^ute  evernaid  fr^-arLlQ  sriftTjfii^" 

In  their  size  they  stand  unique  among  natural  history  illustrations, 
while  their  style  is  striking,  original  and  quite  different  from  any- 
thing that  had  previously  been  produced,  but  in  the  desire  for  ac- 
tion, the  birds  are  sometimes  placed  in  what  are  certainly  unusual 
if  not  as  Dr.  Coues  has  said,  anatomically  impossible  attitudes. 

The  biographies  comprising  the  work  of  Audubon  "the  nat- 
uralist," are  on  the  same  plan  as  those  of  Wilson,  but  Audubon 
was  a  more  fluent  writer  and  seemed  able  to  arouse  the  sympathy 
of  his  reader  with  the  experiences  that  he  relates,  while  the  more 


JOHN  JAMES  AUDUBON  85 

or  less  irrelevant  matter  which  he  often  incorporates  into  the  biog- 
raphies as  well  as  the  "episodes,"  which  are  interpolated  through 
the  volumes  add  largely  to  their  fascination. 

The  relative  merit  of  the  texts  of  Wilson  and  Audubon,  so  far 
as  they  portray  the  habits  and  life  history  of  the  birds  will  doubtless 
always  be  a  matter  of  personal  opinion. 

Audubon's  far  larger  experience  renders  many  of  his  sketches 
more  exhaustive  than  Wilson's,  while  the  far  greater  number  of 
reliable  correspondents  which  he  was  enabled  to  avail  himself  of 
tended  to  the  same  end.  At  the  same  time  there  are  occasionally 
inconsistencies  and  evidences  of  handling  the  subject  with  a  sort 
of  "poetic  license,"  as  well  as  a  great  deal  of  personal  incident, 
which  to  some  has  appeared  uncalled  for.  Some  of  Audubon's 
writings  brought  forth  severe  criticism,  but  usually  from  men  who 
were  so  obviously  his  enemies  that  their  charges  carry  less  weight 
than  they  otherwise  might. 

Preparing  his  manuscript  as  he  did  in  the  heart  of  a  scientific 
community,  Audubon  had  constantly  impressed  upon  him  the 
need  of  accuracy  in  the  strictly  technical  parts  of  his  work. 
When  describing  his  travels  and  the  habits  of  the  birds  that  he  en- 
countered he  was  full  of  enthusiasm,  but  for  the  technical  portion 
he  had  an  avowed  dislike.  Therefore  he  determined  to  secure 
some  one  who  could  attend  to  this  portion  of  the  biographies, 
and  generally  supervise  his  manuscripts.  Negotiations  with 
William  Swanison  failed  of  results  because  Swanison  insisted 
upon  being  recognized  as  a  coauthor,  to  which  Audubon  would 
not  agree,  and  eventually  William  McGillivray,  a  Scotch  orni- 
thologist, was  engaged.  Just  how  much  of  a  hand  McGillivray 
had  in  the  work  it  is  impossible  to  say,  but  he  doubtless  was 
quite  a  factor  in  the  preparation  of  the  technical  descriptions 
and  the  Synopsis  which  was  issued  after  the  completion  of  the 
great  work,  and,  as  Elliot  has  said,  whatever  scientific  value 
there  is  in  Audubon's  Biography  is  derived  largely  from  Mc- 
Gillivray's  cooperation. 

Compared  with  the  works  of  his  predecessors,  Audubon  differed, 
in  including  a  much  larger  number  of  birds  with  which  he  was 


86  LEADING  AMERICAN  MEN  OF  SCIENCE 

not  personally  familiar,  thus  making  his  work  more  nearly  a 
complete  treatise  on  the  bird  life  of  America  than  any  which  had 
preceded  it.  Wilson  treated  of  two  hundred  and  seventy-eight 
species,  of  which  two  hundred  and  sixty-five  are  now  recognized, 
while  Audubon  treated  in  all  five  hundred  and  nine  of  which 
four  hundred  and  seventy-three  are  recognized  to-day  as  belong- 
ing to  our  fauna.  Of  those  additional  to  Wilson  ninety-three  are 
water  birds,1  and  one  hundred  and  seventeen  land  birds.  Of  the 
latter  only  forty-six  came  under  his  own  observation,  no  less  than 
fifty-one  being  furnished  him  by  John  K.  Townsend,  the  first 
ornithologist  to  cross  the  continent  to  the  shores  of  the  Pacific. 

While  honored  with  memberships  in  many  scientific  societies, 
Audubon  took  no  part  in  their  deliberations  and  felt  himself  out 
of  place  in  such  assemblages.  He  says  of  a  meeting  of  the  Royal 
Society  of  London:  "The  evening  was  spent  at  the  Royal  Society, 
where  as  at  all  Royal  Societies,  I  heard  a  dull  heavy  lecture." 

As  has  already  been  said  Audubon  was  popular  with  almost 
every  one  with  whom  he  came  in  contact,  interesting  and  vivacious 
in  conversation,  a  talented  musician  and  above  all  with  every 
characteristic  of  the  artist  strongly  marked.  In  person  he  was 
always  strikingly  handsome.  In  his  early  prime  he  says  of  himself, 
"I  measured  five  feet  ten  and  a  half  inches,  was  of  a  fair  mien, 
and  quite  a  handsome  figure,  large  dark  and  rather  sunken  eyes, 
light  colored  eye-brows,  aquiline  nose,  and  a  fine  set  of  teeth ;  hair, 
fine  texture  and  luxuriant,  divided  and  passing  down  behind  each 
ear  in  luxuriant  ringlets  as  far  as  the  shoulders." 

He  continued  to  wear  his  hair  in  this  fashion  after  he  reached 
Edinburgh,  nor  did  he  seem  to  mind  the  attention  that  he  thus  at- 
tracted. Mr.  Joseph  Coolidge  who  accompanied  Audubon  on  his 
Labrador  expedition  in  1833,  gives  us  a  picture  of  the  naturalist,  as 
he  knew  him,  "You  had  only  to  meet  him  to  love  him,"  he  says, 
"and  when  you  had  conversed  with  him  for  a  moment,  you  looked 
upon  him  as  an  old  friend,  rather  than  a  stranger.  ...  To  this 
day  I  can  see  him,  a  magnificent  gray  haired  man,  childlike  in  his 
simplicity,  kind-hearted,  noble-souled,  lover  of  nature  and  lover  of 

1  Wilson  never  completed  his  work  and  the  water  birds  are  very  deficient. 


JOHN  JAMES  AUDUBON  87 

youth,  friend  of  humanity,  and  one  whose  religion  was  the  golden 
rule."  His  kindness  to  young  ornithologists  is 'again  attested  by 
the  letters  and  journal  of  Spencer  F.  Baird,  who  as  a  student  in 
New  York  City,  saw  a  great  deal  of  the  then  venerable  naturalist 
and  received  much  kindly  instruction  and  encouragement  from 
him. 

While  it  has  been  his  reputation  as  an  artist  and  a  student  of  the 
habits  of  birds,  that  has  made  the  name  of  Audubon  famous,  there 
is  one  characteristic  which  we  can  trace  through  his  whole  eventful 
life,  which  was  primarily  responsible  for  his  success  and  without 
which  he  would  probably  never  have  achieved  notoriety.  This 
was__the  indomitflhlf  ™"f^g°  ^"^  proM^fon/'o  wjth  which  he 
carried  out  the  gigantic  publication  mat  had  early  become  estab- 
lished in  his  mind  as  his  life-work.  In  spite  of  hardship,  poverty 
and  actual  want  he  persevered  until  success  crowned  his  efforts. 
And  if,  we  see  here  and  there  exaggeration  in  his  plates  or  if  pas- 
sages in  his  writings  seen  to  personify  the  subjects  or  to  tend  toward 
egotism,  we  must  remember  the  character  of  the  man,  whose 
pencil  was  striving  to  present  to  us  the  action  and  life  of  the  crea- 
tures he  loved  to  watch ;  whose  pen  could  not  describe  their  habits 
without  telling  us  also  of  the  feelings  that  arose  within  him  as  his 
mind  reverted  to  the  scenes  of  which  he  wrote,  and  who  could  not 
help  looking  upon  them  as  fellow-beings.  This  was  no  museum 
savant  but  a  painter-naturalist,  who  holds  a  distinct  place  in  the 
history  of  Ornithology. 

And  of  his  work  we  can  truly  say  that  no  paintings  have  inspired 
more  men  to  follow  on  the  path  he  trod,  and  no  text  on  bird  life 
has  been  read  with  more  consuming  interest. 


BENJAMIN  SILLIMAN 

CHEMIST 

1779-1864 

BY  DANIEL  COIT  OILMAN 

BENJAMIN  SILLIMAN,  for  fifty  years  a  leader  among  the  sci- 
entific men  of  the  United  States,  has  won  the  grateful  remem- 
brance of  his  countrymen  by  important  services  in  four  distinct 
fields. 

He  was  an  admirable  teacher  of  undergraduates  in  Yale 
College,  and  was  an  efficient  aid  in  building  up  every  department 
of  that  famous  institution  during  his  long  connection  with  it. 

He  was  a  pioneer  in  providing  advanced  instruction  for  special 
students  of  science. 

By  his  lectures  delivered  in  every  part  of  the  country,  he 
contributed,  in  a  large  degree,  to  the  promotion  of  a  love  of  sci- 
ence and  to  the  foundation  of  scientific  institutions. 

He  began  and  maintained,  with  much  sacrifice,  the  American 
Journal  of  Science  which  has  continued  for  nearly  fourscore  years 
and  ten  to  be  a  leading  repository  of  American  science. 

An  extended  memoir  of  Professor  Silliman,  including  extracts 
from  his  correspondence,  was  prepared  and  published  soon  after 
his  death  by  one  of  his  younger  colleagues,  Professor  George  P. 
Fisher.  This  work  is  so  complete  and  is  based  on  such  trust- 
worthy papers,  that  very  little,  if  anything,  can  be  added  to  it. 
Moreover,  the  memoir  is  so  readable  that  the  present  writer 
would  not  venture  upon  the  preparation  of  this  paper,  were  it 
not  that  younger  generations,  to  whom  "Professor  Silliman" 
is  a  name  and  but  little  more,  may  read  a  short  article  while  a 

89 


90  LEADING  AMERICAN  MEN  OF  SCIENCE 

long  biography  might  deter  them.  By  the  permission  of  Dr. 
Fisher,  free  use  will  be  made  of  his  material,  for  which  this 
general  acknowledgment  is  gratefully  made. 

I  have  besides  read  over  afresh  the  appreciation  of  Professor 
A.  W.  Wright,  the  affectionate  estimate  of  President  Dwight,  and 
the  six  volumes  of  Silliman's  Travels, — three  on  Europe  as  seen 
by  him  in  1805-06;  two  on  Europe  visited  forty-five  or  six  years 
later;  and  one  on  Canada  in  1810. 

For  the  sake  of  a  personal  flavor,  may  I  be  allowed  to  add  that 
during  my  college  course  I  attended,  with  my  classmates,  his 
lectures  on  Geology,  Mineralogy  and  Chemistry,  and  I  had  also 
the  privilege  of  being  a  frequent  and  informal  visitor  in  his  house, 
where  I  learned  to  love  and  admire  his  noble  qualities,  as  I 
enjoyed  his  fund  of  anecdotes  regarding  the  men  whom  he  had 
met  and  the  events  of  which  he  had  been  a  witness  or  in  which 
he  had  taken  part.  Hearing  Silliman  and  Kingsley,  friends  of 
half  a  century,  cap  each  other's  stories  as  they  sat  together  in  the 
parlor,  after  the  tea-cups,  is  a  delightful  and  ineffaceable  memory. 

I  remember  him  at  that  time,  when  he  was  not  far  from  seventy 
years  old,  six  feet  in  height,  broad-shouldered,  of  elastic  step, 
with  thin,  grayish  well-trimmed  hair  and  a  smooth  chin,  never 
hurried  and  never  worried,  entirely  self-possessed  before  an 
audience,  successful  in  his  demonstrations,  graceful  in  his  ges- 
tures, fluent  and  sometimes  discursive  in  his  speech,  loving  to 
hear  or  to  tell  appropriate  anecdotes,  welcomed  everywhere  in 
private  or  in  public,  a  reverent  worshiper  in  the  college  chapel, 
where  in  his  turn  he  conducted  prayers,  never  troubled  by  reli- 
gious doubts,  an  unquestioning  believer.  While  his  pecuniary 
resources  could  not  be  called  affluent,  he  was  always  able  to  live 
like  a  gentleman  in  constant  unostentatious  hospitality.  Among 
college  professors  I  have  never  known  one  who  bore  his  self- 
conscious  dignity  with  so  much  ease  and  affability,  and  who 
extended  his  courtesies  so  naturally  and  so  acceptably  to  supe- 
riors, inferiors  and  equals.  Among  hoary  headed  men,  I  have 
never  seen  a  finer  example  of  conservatism  without  senility  and 
of  never  failing  enthusiasm,  enriched  by  experience,  always 


BENJAMIN  SILLIMAN  91 

ready  for  progress,  always  welcoming  new  light,  always  encourag- 
ing the  young  and  seconding  their  endeavors. 

The  ancestry  of  this  eminent  man  was  of  the  best  New  England 
stock.  His  grandfather,  Ebenezer  (Yale,  1727),  was  a  Judge  of 
the  Superior  Court  of  Connecticut,  and  the  proprietor  of  a  large 
landed  estate  in  Fairfield.  His  father,  Gold  Selleck  Silliman,  a 
successful  lawyer,  who  had  graduated  at  Yale  in  1752,  took  an 
active  part  in  the  Revolutionary  struggle,  and  acquired  the  rank 
of  Brigadier- General  in  the  Connecticut  militia.  He  was  en- 
gaged in  the  battles  of  Long  Island,  White  Plains  and  Ridge- 
field,  and  was  charged  with  the  defense  of  southwestern  Connect- 
icut from  the  incursions  of  the  enemy.  So  active  did  he  become 
that  a  special  expedition  was  sent  by  Sir  Henry  Clinton  for  his 
arrest,  which  was  effected  at  midnight,  May  n,  1779,  at  his 
house  on  Holland  Hill.  After  military  imprisonment  for  a  year, 
General  Silliman  was  restored  to  his  family.  Soon  after  her 
husband's  arrest,  Mrs  Silliman  retreated,  with  her  eldest  child, 
to  a  retired  settlement,  not  far  away,  then  called  North  Stratford, 
and  now  Trumbull.  Here  Benjamin  was  born,  August  8,  1779. 
When  he  was  eleven  years  old,  his  father  died,  July  21,  1790, 
in  the  fifty-ninth  year  of  his  age. 

The  mother  traced  her  descent  from  John  Alden  and  Priscilla 
Mullins,  of  the  Mayflower  Pilgrims,  whose  romantic  story  has 
been  told  by  the  poet  Longfellow.  She  was  the  daughter  of 
Rev.  Joseph  Fish,  for  fifty  years  a  Congregational  minister  in 
North  Stonington,  Conn.  Her  death  occurred  in  1818  when  her 
son,  at  the  age  of  forty  years,  had  acquired  distinction. 

Both  parents  were  of  unusual  excellence,  well  born,  but  not 
in  affluence,  well  placed,  well  connected,  well  educated,  very 
patriotic  and  deeply  religious. 

Until  the  death  of  the  mother,  the  home  of  the  Silliman  family 
continued  to  be  in  that  part  of  Fairfield  known  as  Holland  Hill, 
some  two  or  three  miles  from  the  village.  Upon  the  same  lofty 
ridge,  commanding  a  beautiful  view  over  Long  Island  Sound  and 
its  adjacent  coasts,  is  Greenfield  Hill,  where  Timothy  Dwight, 
afterwards  President  of  Yale  College,  maintained  an  academy 


92  LEADING  AMERICAN  MEN  OF  SCIENCE 

for  the  instruction  of  girls.  There  are  charming  glimpses  of 
this  rural  life.  By  birth,  education  and  choice,  Benjamin  and 
his  elder  brother,  Gold  Selleck,  were  country  boys,  and  adopted 
the  amusements  and  varieties  of  exercise  which  belong  peculiarly 
to  the  country.  Much  company  resorted  to  Holland  Hill,  and 
near  by,  the  village  of  Fairfield  was  the  home  of  many  families 
of  refinement  and  influence,  as  the  names  of  Thaddeus  Burr, 
Jonathan  Sturges  and  Andrew  Eliot  suggest.  Here  a  little  later, 
dwelt  Roger  Minot  Sherman. 

The  first  experience  of  Benjamin  Silliman,  away  from  the 
parental  roof,  began  in  New  Haven,  where  he  was  admitted  as 
a  student  of  Yale  College  in  the  autumn  of  1792, — then  but 
thirteen  years  of  age,  the  youngest  of  the  class  save  one.  He 
had  been  well  fitted  for  his  college  course  by  the  minister  of 
Fairfield,  Rev.  Andrew  Eliot,  who  had  graduated  at  Harvard  in 
1762.  He  was  a  thorough  scholar  who  took  delight  in  imparting 
to  his  few  pupils  a  love  of  the  classics,  especially  of  Virgil,  but 
unfortunately,  his  choice  library  had  been  consumed  when  Gen- 
eral Tryon  burnt  the  town  of  Fairfield  in  1779. 

Dr.  Ezra  Stiles  was  President  of  the  college  until  1795  when 
he  was  succeeded  by  Dr.  Timothy  Dwight.  Silliman's  remi- 
niscences of  this  period  give  amusing  illustrations  of  the  condi- 
tions under  which  students  grew  up  at  that  time. 

After  taking  his  degree,  in  the  class  of  1796,  he  had  for  the  next 
few  years  the  experience  of  many  college  graduates, — uncertainty 
as  to  his  future.  He  spent  some  time  with  his  mother,  looking 
after  her  affairs,  taught  school  for  a  while  in  Wethersfield,  and 
began  the  study  of  law  at  New  Haven  under  the  guidance  of 
Simeon  Baldwin,  David  Daggett  and  Charles  Chauncey,  and 
was  duly  admitted  to  the  bar  in  1802.  While  pursuing  these 
studies,  he  held  the  office  of  tutor  in  Yale  College,  having  received 
the  appointment  in  1799  when  he  had  just  reached  the  age  of 
twenty  years.  An  eye-witness,1  then  a  student,  describes  his 
initiation  into  the  tutorial  office  thus: —  I  recall  "a  fair  and 
portly  young  man,  with  thick  and  long  hair,  clubbed  behind, 
i  Rev.  Noah  Porter,  D.D.,  of  Farmington,  Conn. 


BENJAMIN  SILLIMAN  93 

(a  la  mode  George  Washington),  following  President  D wight 
up  the  middle  aisle  for  evening  prayer,  and  taking  his  seat  in  a 
large  square  pew  at  the  right  of  the  pulpit.  After  prayers,  a  call 
from  the  President,  Sedete  omnes,  brought  us  all  upon  our  seats, 
when  Silliman,  at  a  sign  from  the  President,  rose  and  read  a 
written  formula  declaring  his  assent  to  the  Westminster  Cate- 
chism and  the  Saybrook  platform.  So  he  was  inducted  into  the 
tutorship."  Three  years  later,  in  September,  1802,  he  became  a 
member  of  the  College  church  and  from  that  time  onward  to  the 
close  of  his  life,  there  are  many  proofs  of  the  sincerity  of  his 
Christian  experience. 

The  earliest  indication  of  interest  in  science  on  the  part  of 
Silliman,  appears  to  be  an  essay  which  he  read  before  the  Brothers 
in  Unity  at  Yale  when  he  was  sixteen  years  old.  It  is  a  concise 
survey  of  the  three  kindoms  of  nature  in  their  fundamental 
peculiarities!  Occasionally,  like  other  students,  he  turned  to 
verse.  His  piece  at  graduation  was  a  poetical  sketch  of  the  con- 
dition of  European  nations,  contrasted  with  the  lot  of  this  country, 
and  when  he  took  his  second  degree,  in  1 799,  he  read  a  poem  on 
"Columbia." 

Toward  the  close  of  his  life,  Professor  Silliman  wrote  out  from 
time  to  time  his  reminiscences,  having  chiefly  in  view  (as  his 
biographer,  Dr.  Fisher  says),  that  department  of  instruction  in 
Yale  College  with  the  origin  and  growth  of  which  he  was  so 
closely  connected,  and  as  many  of  his  early  letters  are  also 
extant,  I  can  give  in  his  own  phrases  the  story  of  the  introduction 
of  Chemistry  into  the  curriculum  of  Yale. 

For  many  years  under  Clap  and  Stiles,  mathematics  and  natu- 
ral philosophy  had  been  taught.  Some  apparatus  had  been 
collected  and  was  sacredly  guarded  in  a  room  always  kept  closed 
except  when  students  or  visitors  were  admitted  to  it.  This 
apartment  was  in  the  old  "  South  Middle,"  which  stands  in  the 
present  quadrangle  fortunately  saved  as  an  honored  relic  of 
colonial  times;  "in  the  old  college,  second  loft,  north  east  corner, 
room  No.  56,"  in  Silliman's  record.  "There  was  an  air  of 
mystery  about  the  room,"  says  Silliman  and  "we  entered  it  with 


94  LEADING  AMERICAN  MEN  OF  SCIENCE 

awe,  increasing  to  admiration  after  we  had  seen  something  of 
the  apparatus  and  the  experiments.  There  was  an  air-pump, 
an  electrical  machine  of  the  cylinder  form,  a  whirling  table,  a 
telescope  of  medium  size,  and  some  of  smaller  dimensions;  a 
quadrant,  a  set  of  models,  for  illustrating  the  mechanical  powers, 
a  condensing  fountain  with  jets  d'eau,  a  theodolite,  and  a  magic 
lantern — the  wonder  of  Freshmen.  These  were  the  principal  in- 
struments; they  were  of  considerable  value:  they  served  to  impart 
valuable  information,  and  to  enlarge  the  student's  knowledge  of 
the  material  world." 

The  professor  of  Mathematics  and  Natural  Philosphy  at  this 
time  was  Josiah  Meigs,  who  afterwards  won  further  distinction 
as  President  of  the  University  of  Georgia,  and  still  later,  as 
Professor  of  Experimental  Philosophy  in  Columbian  University, 
Washington.  He  was  a  man  of  great  ability  and  belonged  to 
a  family,  of  which  other  members  have  won  distinction,  among 
them,  Dr.  Charles  D.  Meigs  and  General  M.  C.  Meigs.  His 
lectures  at  Yale,  during  seven  years,  were  delivered  from  the 
pulpit  of  the  College  Chapel.  To  him,  Silliman  attributes  his 
earliest  impressions  in  respect  to  Chemistry.  The  lecturer  had 
read  Chaptal,  Lavoisier  and  other  French  writers;  from  these  he 
occasionally  introduced,  says  his  pupil,  chemical  facts  and  prin- 
ciples in  common  with  those  of  Natural  Philosophy.  Thus,  he 
continues,  was  created  "in  my  youthful  mind  a  vivid  curiosity 
to  know  more  of  the  science  to  which  they  appertained.  Little 
did  I  then  imagine  that  Providence  held  this  duty  and  pleasure 
in  reserve  for  me." 

The  turning-point  in  Silliman's  life  occurred  in  1801.  He 
had  been  invited  to  take  up  his  residence  in  Georgia,  under 
favorable  auspices,  and  while  he  was  considering  this  proposal, 
he  met  President  Dwight  "one  very  warm  morning  in  July," 
as  he  says,  "under  the  shade  of  the  grand  trees  in  the  street  in 
front  of  the  College  buildings,  when,  after  the  usual  salutations, 
he  lingered,  and  conversation  ensued.  I  felt  it  to  be  both  a 
privilege  and  a  duty  to  ask  his  advice."  "I  advise  you  not  to 
go,"  was  the  reply  of  his  chief,  "for  these  reasons  among  others." 


BENJAMIN  SILLIMAN  95 

He  then  proceeded  to  say  that  the  College  had  resolved  to  estab- 
lish a  professorship  of  Chemistry  and  Natural  History.  No 
American  appeared  qualified  to  discharge  the  duties  of  the  office 
and  there  were  objections  to  calling  a  foreigner.  The  College 
had  therefore  decided  to  select  one  of  its  younger  graduates  and 
encourage  him  to  prepare  himself  for  the  professorship.  He  then 
asked  Silliman's  consent  to  have  his  name  presented  for  appoint- 
ment. The  young  lawyer  was  staggered  by  this  suggestion,  but 
after  deliberation,  he  decided  to  accept  the  call.  Thus  began 
the  career  which  continued  for  half  a  century  and  exerted  a 
strong  influence  upon  the  progress  of  science  throughout  the 
United  States. 

How  should  the  prospective  Professor  of  Chemistry  fit  him- 
self for  the  post  to  which  he  was  unexpectedly  called?  Where 
could  he  turn  for  instruction  ?  Whom  could  he  consult  ?  Phila- 
delphia was  then  the  principal  seat  of  science  in  America;  the 
influence  of  Franklin  and  Rittenhouse  was  still  felt.  The  Med- 
ical School  had  already  acquired  distinction,  and  a  course  of 
lectures  on  Chemistry  formed  a  part  of  its  regular  courses  of 
instruction.  Dr.  James  Woodhouse  was  the  lecturer,  in  this 
subject.  Some  eclat  was  given  to  his  instruction  by  the  fact  that 
he  had  just  returned  from  London  where  he  had  been  with  Sir 
Humphry  Davy.  Silliman's  picture  of  the  situation  is  not 
altogether  flattering.  The  lecture  rooms  were  crowded,  there 
was  no  assistant,  the  apparatus  was  humble,  but  the  experiments 
were  numerous  and  made  a  strong  impression  upon  his  pupil. 
Woodhouse  seems  to  have  been  in  advance  of  his  time  by  ridi- 
culing the  idea  that  the  visitation  of  yellow  fever  was  a  visitation 
of  God  for  the  sins  of  the  people. 

Among  the  companions  of  Silliman  was  Robert  Hare,  who  had 
then  perfected  his  invention  of  the  oxyhydrogen  blowpipe,  and 
presented  the  instrument  to  the  Chemical  Society  of  Philadelphia. 
Silliman  worked  with  Hare  and  made  important  suggestions 
for  the  improvement  of  this  apparatus.  Among  the  other  men 
of  science  whom  he  saw  were  Dr.  Benjamin  Rush,  Dr.  Benjamin 
Smith  Barton,  Dr.  Caspar  Wistar  and  the  illustnous  Joseph 


g6  LEADING  AMERICAN  MEN  OF  SCIENCE 

Priestley,  then  living  at  Northumberland,  and  not  infrequently 
seen  at  the  hospitable  table  of  Dr.  Wistar. 

In  his  transits  from  New  York  to  Philadelphia,  Silliman 
often  stopped  in  Princeton  where  he  found  an  inspiring  friend  in 
Dr.  Maclean  whom  he  speaks  of  as  his  earliest  master  in  Chemis- 
try. Although  he  did  not  have  the  opportunity  to  attend  any 
lectures  there,  he  calls  Princeton  his  "first  starting-point"  in 
that  science.  The  young  chemist  spent  a  second  winter  in 
Philadelphia  when  he  continued  to  be  intimate  with  Robert 
Hare,  and  in  the  spring  returned  to  New  Haven  and  began  to 
write  his  lectures.  Among  the  instructions  from  President 
Dwight,  which  Silliman  received  in  Philadelphia  was  one  request- 
ing him  to  pay  some  attention,  if  possible,  before  his  return,  to 
"the  analyzing  of  stones."  "The  President  has  received  some 
of  the  basalts  from  the  Giant's  Causeway,  and  supposes  that 
there  is  a  stone  in  the  neighborhood  of  this  town  of  a  similar 
nature;  he  wishes  to  ascertain  the  fact." 

In  the  following  summer  he  delivered  his  first  course  of 
lectures  upon  Chemistry.  He  had  prepared  them  with  a  great 
deal  of  care,  and  he  afterwards  pointed  with  pride  to  the  names 
of  distinguished  men  who  were  members  of  the  class, — John 
C.  Calhoun,  Bishop  Gadsden,  John  Pierpont,  the  poet,  and  many 
others.  During  his  absence  a  subterranean  lecture  room  had 
been  fitted  up  for  his  laboratory,  but  so  inconvenient  was  it,  that 
the  young  chemist  was  obliged  to  get  several  members  of  the 
corporation  into  the  gloomy  cavern,  fifteen  or  sixteen  feet  below 
the  surface  of  the  ground,  before  they  could  be  persuaded  to 
improve  this  faulty  situation.  In  this  deep-seated  laboratory, 
Silliman  worked  during  fifteen  of  the  best  years  of  his  life  and 
he  has  left  particular  accounts  of  the  simple  apparatus  which 
he  possessed.  He  was  much  encouraged  by  a  remark  of  the 
great  Dr.  Priestley,  namely, 

"that  with  Florence  flasks  (cleaned  by  sand  and  ashes)  and  plenty 
of  glass  tubes,  vials,  bottles,  and  corks,  a  tapering  iron  rod  to  be 
heated  and  used  as  a  cork  borer,  and  a  few  live  coals  with  which 
to  bend  the  tubes,  a  good  variety  of  apparatus  might  be  fitted  up. 


BENJAMIN  SILLIMAN  97 

Some  gun-barrels  also,  he  said,  would  be  of  much  service;  and  I 
had  brought  from  Philadelphia  an  old  blacksmith's  furnace,  which 
served  for  the  heating  of  the  iron  tubes.  He  said,  moreover,  that 
sand  and  bran  (coarse  Indian  meal  is  better),  with  soap,  would 
make  the  hands  clean,  and  that  there  was  no  sin  in  dirt." 

Not  long  after  the  commencement  of  his  duties,  the  College 
determined  to  spend  $10,000  in  the  purchase  of  books  and 
apparatus.  Silliman  was  intrusted  with  this  responsibility  and 
at  the  end  of  March,  1805,  sailed  for  Europe.  He  had  given 
lectures  during  the  winter  at  the  rate  of  four  in  a  week,  in  all 
"  sixty  lectures  or  more,  including  some  notices  of  Mineralogy." 
Of  his  travels  in  England,  Holland  and  Scotland,  a  very  enter- 
taining narrative  was  published  in  1810.  Few  books  of  the 
time  had  a  wider  circulation.  Repeated  editions  were  called 
for,  and  ten  years  after  the  original  publication,  the  book  was 
reissued  with  additions  from  the  original  manuscripts  of  the 
author.  The  introductions  which  the  young  man  carried  with 
him  brought  him  into  acquaintance  with  many  of  the  most 
distinguished  men  of  the  day.  Among  others  whom  he  seems  to 
have  seen  familiarly,  may  be  named  Sir  Joseph  Banks,  the  Presi- 
dent of  the  Royal  Society,  Watt,  the  improver  of  the  steam- 
engine,  then  a  man  of  seventy  years  of  age,  Mr.  Greville  whose 
fine  collection  of  minerals  was  subsequently  added  to  the  British 
Museum,  Dr.  Wollaston,  the  Secretary  of  the  Royal  Society, 
Mr.  Cavendish,  the  distinguished  chemist,  Rennel  the  geographer, 
and  many  more.  He  saw  something  of  the  Clapham  circle, 
particularly  William  Wilberforce,  Mr.  Thornton  and  Lord  Teign- 
mouth.  Sir  Humphry  Davy,  then  about  twenty-five  years  of 
age  and  "of  an  appearance  more  youthful  than  might  have  been 
expected  from  his  years/'  was  only  in  town  for  a  day  or  two 
before  Silliman's  departure,  but  a  brief  visit  to  this  great  man 
made  a  strong  impression  upon  the  young  American. 

After  a  short  journey  in  Holland  and  Belgium,  of  which  he 
has  left  extended  accounts,  Silliman  proceeded  to  Edinburgh 
where  he  spent  the  winter  of  1805-06.  About  thirty  Americans, 
most  of  them  from  the  South,  were  then  enrolled  as  students, 


98  LEADING  AMERICAN  MEN  OF  SCIENCE 

and  two  of  them,  afterwards  known  as  the  Rev.  John  Codman, 
D.  D.,  of  Boston,  and  Professor  John  Gorham,  M.  D.,  of  Wash- 
ington, were  his  familiar  companions.  The  reader  will  be 
disappointed  if  he  turns  to  the  Travels  for  an  account  of  the 
condition  of  science  or  of  the  methods  employed  for  its  promotion. 
Two  pages  include  all  that  he  has  here  to  say  upon  this  subject, 
but  the  deficiencies  are  fully  supplied  by  the  reminiscences 
afterwards  published  by  his  biographer. 

The  University  of  Edinburgh  in  its  intellectual  activity  and 
in  its  renown  then  surpassed  any  other  university  in  the  English- 
speaking  world.  The  records  of  its  preeminence  are  abundant. 
For  example,  Russell's  recent  biography  of  Sidney  Smith  throws 
this  sidelight  upon  the  state  of  society  not  long  before  the  arrival 
of  Silliman. 

The  University  of  Edinburgh  was  then  in  its  days  of  glory. 
Dugald  Stewart  was  Professor  of  Moral  Philosophy;  John  Play- 
fair,  of  Mathematics;  John  Hill,  of  Humanity.  The  teaching  was 
at  once  interesting  and  systematic,  the  intellectual  atmosphere 
liberal  and  enterprising.  English  parents  who  cared  seriously  for 
mental  and  moral  freeedom,  such  as  the  Duke  of  Somerset,  the 
Duke  of  Bedford,  and  Lord  Lansdowne,  sent  their  sons  to  Edin- 
burgh instead  of  Oxford  or  Cambridge.  The  University  was  in 
close  relations  with  the  Bar,  then  adorned  by  the  great  names  of 
Francis  Jeffrey,  Francis  Horner,  Henry  Brougham,  and  Walter 
Scott.  While  Michael  Beach  was  duly  attending  the  professorial 
lectures,  his  tutor  was  not  idle.  From  Dugald  Stewart  and 
Thomas  Brown,  he  acquired  the  elements  of  Moral  Philosophy. 
He  gratified  a  lifelong  fancy  by  attending  the  Clinical  Lectures 
given  by  Dr.  Gregory  in  the  hospitals  of  Edinburgh,  and  studied 
Chemistry  under  Dr.  Black.  He  amused  himself  with  chemical 
experiments. 

"I  mix'd  4  of  Holland  gin  with  8  of  olive  oil,  and  stirr'd  them 
well  together.  I  then  added  4  of  nitric  acid.  A  violent  ebullition 
ensued.  Nitrous  ether,  as  I  suppos'd,  was  generated,  and  in  about 
four  hours  the  oil  became  perfectly  concrete,  white  and  hard  as 
tallow." 


BENJAMIN  SILLIMAN  99 

The  renown  of  Joseph  Black,  Professor  of  Chemistry,  who  had 
died  in  1799,  still  shed  its  luster  upon  Auld  Reekie.  Many  inter- 
esting stories  are  told  of  this  great  teacher.  "  Chemistry,"  he  said, 
"is  not  yet  a  science.  We  are  far  from  knowing  first  principles, 
and  we  should  avoid  everything  that  has  the  pretensions  of  a  full 
system."  Late  in  life,  Silliman  sometimes  repeated  the  following 
anecdote  (which  is  quoted  by  Miss  Clerke  from  Ferguson), 
respecting  the  death  of  Professor  Black: 

"Being  at  table  with  his  usual  fare,  some  bread,  a  few  prunes, 
and  a  measured  quantity  of  milk  diluted  with  water,  and  having 
the  cup  in  his  hand  when  the  last  stroke  of  the  pulse  was  to  be 
given,  he  appeared  to  have  set  it  down  on  his  knees,  which  were 
joined  together,  and  in  the  action  expired  without  spilling  a  drop, 
as  if  an  experiment  had  been  purposely  made  to  evince  the  fa- 
cility with  which  he  departed." 

To  Professor  John  Robison,  the  colleague  of  Black,  Silliman 
had  brought  special  introductions.  Perhaps  at  Dr.  Maclean's 
suggestion,  Princeton  had  already  conferred  upon  him  an  honor- 
ary degree.  His  death  occurred  before  the  letter  could  be  pre- 
sented. It  was  therefore  to  the  lectures  of  Professor  Thomas 
Charles  Hope,  who  had  been  a  pupil  of  Lavoisier,  that  Silliman 
resorted.  The  art  of  lecturing  was  then  developed  to  great  per- 
fection, and  although  Dr.  Hope  gave  no  teaching  in  practical 
chemistry  before  1823,  he  must  have  been  an  inspiring  and  bril- 
liant teacher,  performing  experiments  in  the  presence  of  his  class 
in  the  most  skilful  manner.  His  reception  of  the  young  American 
is  thus  decribed: 

"Dr.  Hope  was  a  polished  gentleman,  but  a  little  stately  and 
formal  withal.  After  reading  the  letter  of  introduction,  he  turned 
to  me  and  said,  'I  perceive  that  I  am  addressing  a  brother  Pro- 
fessor.' I  bowed,  a  little  abashed;  a  very  young  man,  as  I  still 
was  (at  the  age  of  26),  thus  to  be  recognized  as  the  peer  of  a  re- 
nowned veteran  in  science,  the  able  successor,  as  he  had  been 
the  associate,  of  the  distinguished  Dr.  Black.  He  proceeded, — 
'Now  sir,  from  long  experience,  I  will  give  you  one  piece  of  ad- 
vice,— that  is,  never  to  attempt  to  give  a  lecture  until  you  are  en- 
tirely possessed  of  your  subject,  and  never  to  venture  on  an  ex- 


100         LEADING  AMERICAN  MEN  OF  SCIENCE 

periment  of  whose  success  you  are  doubtful.'  I  bowed  respect- 
fully my  assent,  adding  at  the  same  time  that  I  was  happy  to  find 
that  I  had  begun  right,  for  I  had  hitherto  endeavored  to  adopt 
the  very  course  which  he  had  presented,  and  which  I  should  en- 
deavor still  to  follow.  I  thought  I  perceived  that  something  in 
his  manner  indicated  that  he  would  have  been  quite  as  well 
pleased  if  I  had  not  in  some  measure  anticipated  his  experience. 
He  proved  himself  a  model  professor,  and  fully  entitled  to  act  as 
a  mentor." 

In  the  expectation  that  a  medical  school  would  be  established 
in  New  Haven,  Silliman  attended  anatomical  lectures  in  Phila- 
delphia, and  he  did  likewise  in  Edinburgh.  Dr.  James  Gregory 
was  then  chief  of  the  Edinburgh  Medical  School,  the  leading 
consultant  in  medicine,  and,  like  his  colleague  Hope,  an  admirable 
lecturer.  To  his  courses  Silliman  was  naturally  attracted.  "His 
lectures,"  says  his  pupil,  "were  very  informal,  although  not  imme- 
thodical;  if  they  were  written  out,  he  made  no  use  of  notes,  but 
began  without  exordium,  and  poured  out  the  rich  treasures  of  his 
ardent  mind  with  such  crowding  rapidity  of  diction  that  it  was  not 
always  easy  to  apprehend  fully  his  thoughts,  because  we  could 
not  distinctly  hear  all  his  words.  He  had  many  historical  and  per- 
sonal anecdotes,  some  of  which  have  remained  with  me  during  the 
fifty- two  years  that  have  passed  since  I  heard  them." 

Dr.  John  Murray,  a  private  lecturer,  not  connected  with  the 
University,  gave  instruction  to  a  company  of  thirty-five  or  forty 
persons  in  his  own  house,  and  in  this  less  formal  and  more  famil- 
iar mode  of  instruction,  Silliman  found  a  valuable  accessory  to  the 
lectures  of  Dr.  Hope.  "Both  united,"  he  says,  "gave  a  finish  and 
completeness  that  was  all  I  could  desire  to  enable  me  to  resume 
my  course  of  instruction  at  home." 

Edinburgh  was  then  the  seat  of  a  great  scientific  battle.  Pro- 
fessor Robert  Jameson  had  recently  returned  from  Freiberg  where 
he  was  fully  imbued  with  the  geological  tenets  of  Werner  respect- 
ing the  agency  of  water  in  the  phenomena  of  Geology.  Dr. 
Murray  was  a  zealous  advocate  of  these  Wernerian  theories.  Dr. 
Hope,  on  the  other  hand,  defended  what  was  called  the  philosophy 
of  fire, — and  the  extended  researches  of  Dr.  Hutton.  The  discus- 


BENJAMIN  SILLIMAN  101 


sions  of  these  two  men  afforded  a  rich  entertainment  to  Silliman 
and  a  wide  range  of  instruction,  and  his  allusions  to  this  igneous 
and  aqueous  controversy  formed  an  interesting  chapter  in  his  sub- 
sequent American  lectures. 

The  teachers  of  Silliman  were  not  the  only  men  of  mark  whom 
he  met.  He  describes  an  interview  with  Dugald  Stewart,  then  the 
pride  and  ornament  of  Edinburgh.  The  conversation  turned  upon 
American  literature,  for  which  the  philosopher  showed  but  little 
appreciation.  "When  our  poems  were  inquired  for,"  says  Silli- 
man, "it  was  evident  that  the  distinguished  men  around  me  had 
not  heard  even  the  names  of  our  poets,  Dwight,  Trumbull,  Barlow, 
Humphreys,  and  others." 

Sir  David  Brewster,  Professor  Leslie,  the  Earl  of  Buchan 
(Washington's  correspondent),  and  Anderson,  the  editor  of  the 
British  Poets,  are  among  others  whom  he  met,  but  with  them  his 
relations  were  but  brief. 

I  have  given  so  much  space  to  this  Edinburgh  chapter,  chiefly 
because  it  shows  the  dawn  of  instruction  in  Chemistry,  partly  also 
because  of  the  famous  men  referred  to,  and  partly  because  of  the 
influence  exerted  upon  the  young  American  professor.  Looking 
back,  toward  the  end  of  his  life,  Silliman  acknowledges  his  debt  to 
Edinburgh  in  these  words:  Upon  its  characteristics  "I  endeav- 
ored to  form  my  professional  character,  to  imitate  what  I  saw  and 
heard,  and  afterwards  to  introduce  such  improvements  as  I  might 
be  able  to  hit  upon  or  invent.  It  is  obvious  that,  had  I  rested  con- 
tent with  the  Philadelphia  standard,  except  what  I  learned  from 
my  early  friend,  Robert  Hare,  the  chemistry  of  Yale  College  would 
have  been  comparatively  an  humble  affair.  In  mineralogy,  my 
opportunities  at  home  had  been  very  limited.  As  to  geology,  the 
science  did  not  exist  among  us,  except  in  the  minds  of  a  very  few 
individuals,  and  instruction  was  not  attainable  in  any  public 
institution.  In  Edinburgh  there  were  learned  and  eloquent 
geologists  and  lecturers,  and  ardent  and  successful  explorers;  and 
in  that  city  the  great  geological  conflict  between  the  Wernerian 
and  Huttonian  schools  elicited  a  high  order  of  talent  and  rich 
resources  both  in  theory  and  facts." 


102          LEADING  AMERICAN  MEN  OF  SCIENCE 

On  his  return;  Silliman  reached  New  Haven,  Sunday,  June  i, 
1806,  and  went  at  once  to  evening  prayers  in  the  College  Chapel. 
His  days  of  tutelage  were  over  and  his  career  as  a  teacher  began. 
He  soon  made  a  comparison  between  the  geological  features  of 
New  Haven  and  Edinburgh,  and  read  a  paper  on  this  subject 
before  the  Connecticut  Academy.  In  the  autumn,  his  lectures 
began  and  they  continued,  practically  without  interruption,  until 
his  final  release  from  official  duties. 

During  this  long  period,  Silliman  was  identified  with  Yale  Col- 
lege. No  one  in  the  faculty  attracted  more  students,  no  one  exerted 
greater  influence  beyond  the  college  walls.  His  lectures  were 
anticipated  by  successive  classes  with  expectations  of  pleasure  and 
profit  which  were  never  disappointed.  In  later  years,  ladies  were 
regularly  admitted.  The  lecturer  was  always  punctual,  prepared, 
fluent  and  entertaining.  He  was  skilful  in  the  demonstrations 
which  he  made  before  the  class.  After  giving  up  the  subterranean 
room  already  referred  to,  his  instructions  were  given  in  the  old 
dining-room  of  the  College,  a  lecture  room  capable  of  holding 
more  than  a  hundred  persons,  with  accessory  rooms  for  prepara- 
tions. Although  this  was  called  a  laboratory,  its  construction  and 
its  uses  were  very  different  from  those  now  found  in  well-organized 
colleges.  Silliman  was  far  from  being  a  man  of  routine.  He 
threw  himself,  heart  and  soul,  into  the  varied  interests  of  the  Col- 
lege, and,  from  time  to  time,  engaged  in  public  affairs,  as  the  fol- 
lowing narrative  will  show.  It  will  be  more  impressive  to  avoid 
the  chronological  order  in  the  treatment  of  his  career,  and  to  dis- 
cuss, under  various  headings,  his  manifold  services. 

We  begin  with  his  characteristics  as  a  teacher  of  undergraduates. 

During  fifty  years,  three  men,  selected  by  President  Dwight, 
were  closely  associated  in  the  administration  of  Yale  College. 
Jeremiah  Day  began  as  Professor  of  Mathematics  and  afterwards 
succeeded  to  the  Presidency.  James  L.  Kingsley,  first  a  Professor 
of  Ancient  Languages  and  Ecclesiastical  History,  was  relieved 
from  these  multiplex  appointments,  one  after  another,  retaining 
until  the  close  of  his  life,  the  professorship  of  Latin.  Silliman 
began  as  Professor  of  Chemistry  and  Natural  History,  but  Nat- 


BENJAMIN  SILLIMAN  103 

ural  History,  if  that  term  be  regarded  as  including  Zoology  and 
Botany,  never  entered  into  his  field  of  special  study.  Mineralogy 
and  Geology  were  added  to  Chemistry  for  a  time,  and  Pharmacy 
was  specified  in  the  catalogues  of  the  Medical  School.  These 
three  men,  very  different  in  their  intellectual  qualities,  supple- 
mented the  instruction  of  each  other.  Silliman  was  the  attractive 
lecturer,  the  college  orator,  the  man  who  came  to  the  front  on  all 
academic  occasions.  Kingsley  was  the  retired  scholar,  learned, 
accurate,  ready,  masterly  as  a  critic,  thorough  as  a  teacher.  Day, 
a  wise  and  judicious  administrator,  in  addition  to  the  duties  then 
commonly  assigned  to  a  college  president,  gave  instruction  in 
Moral  Philosophy. 

Discriminating  appreciations  of  these  three  men,  with  charac- 
teristic stories,  are  given  in  the  Memories  of  Yale  Life  and  Men,  by 
the  second  President  Dwight.  He  quotes  from  President  Woolsey 
the  saying  that  Silliman,  among  all  the  men  who  lived  in  New 
Haven  during  the  century,  was  the  most  finished  gentleman,  not 
only  in  external  demeanor,  but  in  his  character  and  soul.  Dwight 
says  that 

"His  language  and  style,  his  wonderful  facility  of  expression 
and  clearness  of  statement,  and  the  grace  and  force  of  the  presen- 
tation of  his  thought  were  admirably  fitted  to  arrest  and  hold  the 
attention  of  his  hearers  at  all  times,  as  well  as  to  impress  upon  their 
memory  the  facts  and  truths  which  he  brought  before  them." 

Then  he  adds  this  amusing  story,  illustrating  the  genuine  kindli- 
ness of  the  man: 

"I  well  remember  one  illustrative  case,  respecting  which  there 
had  been  long-continued  deliberation,  with  the  differences  of 
views  that  were  frequently  manifest,  and  the  minds  of  some  of  the 
gentlemen  were  convinced  that  disciplinary  measures  were  essen- 
tial. The  kindly  professor  was  requested  to  give  the  first  vote  in 
the  decision.  He  took  the  College  Catalogue  which  was  lying  on 
the  table  near  him,  and  opening  it  he  said,  'What  is  the  student's 
name,  Mr.  President?'  'Jones,'  the  President  replied.  'Ah,'  said 
he,  after  turning  over  the  pages  somewhat  carefully,  '  Jones  of  the 
Junior  Class?'  'Yes,'  was  the  reply.  'I  notice  that  he  is  from 
Baltimore,'  the  professor  answered;  'when  I  was  lecturing  in  that 


104         LEADING  AMERICAN  MEN  OF  SCIENCE 

city,  his  father  entertained  me  most  hospitably  at  his  house.  I 
think  I  would  treat  the  young  man  as  leniently  as  possible.'  Jones 
was  not  the  young  man's  name,  though  I  have  allowed  myself 
to  call  him  so.  I  do  not  recall  what  fate  befel  him  as  the  result 
of  the  vote  on  that  afternoon.  I  think  it  not  unlikely  that  I  voted 
on  the  unfavorable  side.  Very  possibly,  that  side  of  the  case  was 
the  right  and  reasonable  one  to  take.  But  it  was  not  a  matter  of 
infinite  importance,  and  may  well  be  forgotten  after  so  long  a 
time.  There  was,  however,  given  to  us,  on  that  day,  a  vision  for 
a  moment  of  the  kindly  sentiment  of  a  gracious  gentleman,  which 
remains  with  me  at  this  hour,  and  which  I  think  may,  if  remem- 
bered, have  done  more  of  good  for  all  those  to  whom  it  was  given, 
than  any  mistaken  vote  could  have  done  of  injury  to  the  well- 
being  of  the  academic  community." 

No  better  proof  can  be  given  of  Silliman's  inspiring  qualities  as 
a  teacher  than  to  note  on  the  catalogue  of  Yale  graduates  during 
the  first  half  of  the  century,  the  names  of  those  who  became  investi- 
gators and  teachers.  The  most  illustrious  was  James  Dwight 
Dana,  who  came  to  Yale  attracted  by  the  fame  of  Silliman.  Those 
who  became  jurists,  divines,  statesmen  and  men  of  affairs  could  al- 
ways be  trusted,  in  their  various  vocations,  to  be  the  friends  and 
promoters  of  science,  and  this  too  at  a  period  when  many  educated 
persons  regarded  science  as  antagonistic  to  religion,  and  many 
more  believed  that  attention  to  science  would  be  prejudicial  to 
the  Humanities. 

As  a  colleague,  Silliman  was  about  as  free  from  defects  as  a 
man  can  be.  He  was  especially  distinguished  by  that  considera- 
tion for  others  which  led  him  to  appreciate  and  assist  their  en- 
deavors, to  keep  free  from  jealousy  and  rivalry,  and  to  think  much 
more  of  the  general  good  than  of  personal  preferment  or  the 
attainment  of  gratitude  or  recognition.  He  was  not  merely  the 
occupant  of  a  professor's  chair,  nor  was  he  so  absorbed  by  studies 
and  duties  that  he  was  indifferent  to  the  doings  of  his  colleagues 
and  the  opportunities  of  his  alma  mater. 

In  the  establishment  of  a  cabinet  of  minerals;  the  acquisition  of 
the  Trumbull  gallery;  the  purchase  of  the  Clark  telescope;  the 
foundation  of  the  Medical  School;  and  the  initiation  of  the  Sheffield 
School  of  Science  he  is  especially  to  be  remembered. 


BENJAMIN  SILLIMAN  10$ 

Among  the  treasures  of  the  Peabody  Museum  in  New  Haven 
are  the  collections  in  mineralogy  and  geology,  which  were  once  in 
the  foremost  rank  and  are  still  among  the  most  extensive  and  valu- 
able in  this  country.  The  contrast  is  very  great  between  these 
well-filled  cases  and  drawers,  enriched  by  many  contributions,  se- 
cured by  many  able  investigators,  and  the  meager  outfit  provided 
for  Silliman.  He  often  told  the  story  that,  when  he  was  desig- 
nated a  professor,  he  put  all  the  minerals  belonging  to  the  College 
in  a  candle  box  and  took  them  to  Philadelphia  to  be  named  by  Dr. 
Adam  Seybert.  Some  purchases  were  soon  afterwards  made, 
and  at  length  an  opportunity  occurred  which  Silliman  was  quick 
to  improve.  Colonel  George  Gibbs,  a  lover  of  science,  had  re- 
turned from  Europe  and  was  resident  in  Newport,  R.  I.,  where 
he  was  often  visited  by  the  Yale  professor.  He  had  formed  an 
extensive  and  valuable  collection  of  minerals, — ten  thousand  or 
more  specimens, — and  Silliman  persuaded  him  to  place  them  on 
public  exhibition  in  Yale  College  where  they  remained  from  1810 
until  1825,  attracting  great  attention.  A  subscription  was  then 
taken  up  for  its  purchase,  and  the  collection  became  the  prop- 
erty of  the  College.  Many  additions  were  subsequently  secured 
from  Robert  Bakewell,  William  Macclure,  Alexander  Brongniart 
(of  Paris),  and  G.  A.  Mantell. 

Fisher  tells  this  characteristic  story: 

"When  Mr.  Edward  Everett  came  to  New  Haven  to  deliver  his 
discourse  upon  Washington,  he  related  in  a  short  speech  to  the 
college  students,  an  anecdote  connected  with  the  purchase  of  the 
Gibbs  Cabinet.  Understanding  that  this  collection  was  offered 
for  sale,  Mr.  Everett  had  suggested  to  several  friends  of  Harvard 
that  it  might  be  secured  for  that  institution.  'But,'  said  Mr.  Ev- 
erett, 'they  hung  fire;  and  after  the  bargain  was  concluded  by 
Mr.  Silliman,  I  observed  to  him  that  I  hoped  the  affair  would 
give  a  useful  lesson  to  our  people  against  delay  in  such  matters.' 
1  You  are  welcome,'  said  Mr.  Silliman  with  a  smile,  '  to  any  moral 
benefit  to  be  derived  from  the  matter;  we,  meanwhile,  will  get 
what  good  we  can  from  the  Cabinet.' ' 

For  many  years  the  Trumbull  gallery  of  paintings  shared  with 
the  cabinet  of  minerals  the  interest  of  visitors  to  New  Haven. 


106         LEADING  AMERICAN  MEN  OF  SCIENCE 

Every  stranger  was  expected  to  "go  to  prayers"  in  the  College 
Chapel,  and  to  visit  these  two  collections. 

This  is  the  story  of  the  gallery.  The  famous  painter,  Colonel 
John  Trumbull  (a  son  of  Jonathan  Trumbull,  known  as  Washing- 
ton's Brother  Jonathan),  and  Silliman  had  long  been  friends,  and 
Silliman  had  married  the  artist's  niece.  At  the  age  of  seventy- 
four  years,  this  historical  painter, — to  whom  the  country  is  in- 
debted for  priceless  portraits  of  Washington  and  others  of  the 
earliest  supporters  of  the  Republic, — confided  to  Silliman  his 
impecunious  circumstances,  and  referred  to  his  pictures  as  his 
chief  resource.  He  intimated  his  willingness  to  give  them  to 
Yale  College  in  return  for  a  competent  annuity  for  the  rest  of  his 
life.  Silliman,  with  his  quick  responsiveness,  caught  at  this 
remark,  reported  it  at  once  in  New  Haven,  and  initiated  the  meas- 
ures by  which  a  gallery  was  constructed,  the  pictures  placed  on 
the  walls,  and  the  annuity  secured.  Thus  in  1830,  the  college 
secured  these  works  which  are  now  among  the  invaluable  pos- 
sessions of  the  Yale  School  of  the  Fine  Arts. 

With  similar  tact,  Silliman  procured  from  Sheldon  Clark,  a 
farmer  living  in  a  country  town  near  New  Haven,  the  money 
requisite  for  purchasing  a  telescope,  which  for  many  years  stood 
first  and  best  among  the  astronomical  instruments  of  this  country. 
To  Silliman  also  is  credited  the  impulse  given  by  the  Connecticut 
Academy  of  Arts  and  Sciences  to  the  proposal  of  a  geological 
survey  of  the  State  which  resulted  in  the  reports  of  James  G. 
Percival  and  Charles  U.  Shepard. 

At  the  beginning  of  the  ninteeenth  century,  President  Dwight 
had  in  mind  the  enlargement  of  the  College,  "which  then  passed 
not  only  in  name  but  in  spirit  from  the  eighteenth  to  the  nineteenth 
century."  Silliman  knew  of  this  purpose,  as  we  have  seen,  and 
was  governed  by  it  during  his  courses  of  study  in  Philadelphia 
and  Edinburgh.  Many  years  before,  Dr.  Stiles  had  drafted  the 
plan  of  a  university,  particularly  describing  law  and  medical 
lectures.  It  is  needless  to  repeat  here  the  annals  which  have 
lately  been  skilfully  reproduced  by  Dr.  W.  H.  Welch. l  Finally 
1  See  his  historical  address  at  New  Haven,  in  1901. 


BENJAMIN  SILLIMAN  107 

in  1810,  largely  through  the  efforts  of  Dwight  and  Silliman,  the 
medical  institution  of  Yale  College  was  created  by  the  General 
Assembly.  Silliman  was  regarded  as  already  a  professor  in  this 
institution.  Four  capital  men  constituted  the  first  faculty, — med- 
ical teachers,  says  Dr.  Welch,  who  could  challenge  comparison 
with  any  similar  group  in  this  country.  One  of  them,  Dr.  Nathan 
Smith,  shed  undying  glory  upon  the  school.  He  was  far  ahead 
of  his  time,  and  his  reputation  had  steadily  increased  as  the  medical 
profession  has  slowly  caught  up  with  him. 

Silliman's  part  in  organizing  the  Sheffield  School  is  less  obvious, 
but  at  the  critical  moment,  it  was  of  great  significance.  He  was 
an  old  man,  asking  to  be  released  from  active  duties,  but  he  served 
as  a  member  of  the  important  committee  which,  in  1846,  recom- 
mended the  establishment  of  a  department  of  Philosophy  and  the 
Arts  in  Yale  College.  Out  of  this  movement  soon  came  the  Scien- 
tific School,  whose  early  days  he  watched  and  favored  with  more 
than  paternal  interest.  A  memorial,  chiefly  prepared  by  Silli- 
man, embodying  the  outline  of  a  School  of  Science  was  presented 
in  1846  to  the  College  Corporation,  and  he  personally  appeared 
before  that  august  body  to  urge  upon  them  the  necessity  of  meet- 
ing the  growing  demands  of  the  public  in  this  direction. 

During  most  of  his  career,  Silliman  was  accustomed  to  receive 
in  his  laboratory  assistants  and  pupils,  not  a  few  of  whom  rose 
to  eminence.  I  am  not  aware  that  any  complete  list  of  these  aspir- 
ants is  in  existence,  but  in  their  teacher's  reminiscences,  references 
are  made  to  some  of  the  more  distinguished.  For  nine  years  he 
had  in  his  service  a  bright  boy  named  Foot,  who  came  to  him  a  lad 
of  twelve  years  old,  and  who  ultimately  rose  to  distinction  as  a 
surgeon  in  the  U.  S.  Army.  Then  for  years  he  had  only  hired 
men,  house  servants, — "some  of  them  clumsy,  heavy-handed 
men,  from  whom  the  glass  vessels  suffered  not  a  little."  After 
1821,  genuine  scholars  were  enlisted, — among  them  these  whose 
names  I  bring  together  as  an  indication  of  the  desire,  in  the  early 
part  of  the  last  century,  for  special  advanced  instruction,  so  much 
in  vogue  in  these  later  times. l  The  story  of  Silliman's  laboratory 

1  These  were  among  those  who  acted  as  his  assistants  or  worked  in  his 


io8         LEADING  AMERICAN  MEN  OF  SCIENCE 

will,  one  of  these  days,  make  a  good  prelude  to  the  history  of  uni- 
versity education  in  this  country  as  distinguished  from  collegiate. 
The  term  " University  Extension"  did  not  come  into  vogue 
until  long  after  the  career  of  Silliman  was  ended, — but  many 
years  previous,  in  the  full  maturity  of  his  powers,  he  gave  to 
public  audiences  long  courses  of  lectures  closely  akin  to  those 
which  he  was  accustomed  to  give  in  college.  His  dignified  and 
courteous  manners,  fluent  delivery,  and  well-chosen  illustrations 
sustained  the  reputation  which  had  he  acquired  as  the  father  of 
American  science.  When  his  theme  was  chemistry,  he  per- 
formed experiments  in  the  presence  of  his  auditors  which  always 
interested  and  not  seldom  surprised  them.  When  geology  was 
his  subject,  the  lecture  room  was  hung  with  colored  pictures  of 
the  flora  and  fauna  of  paleontological  periods,  with  fiery  por- 
trayals of  volcanic  fires,  or  with  quieter  but  not  less  impressive 
views  of  the  glaciers  in  Switzerland  and  the  basaltic  columns  of 
Staff  a.  He  never  "posed"  as  a  man  of  superior  or  mysterious 
learning,  but  he  always  spoke  as  an  educated  gentleman,  eager 
to  interest  and  instruct  his  hearers.  Perhaps  the  most  brilliant 
of  these  courses  were  those  in  which  he  inaugurated  the  lecture 
system  of  the  Lowell  Institute  in  Boston.  In  the  winter  of 
1839-40  he  gave  twenty-four  lectures  upon  geology  which  were 
so  popular  that  every  lecture  was  repeated.  He  had  a  similar 
experience  in  the  following  winter,  when  his  course  in  chemistry, 
including  twenty-four  lectures,  was  given  to  a  second  audience. 
In  the  next  two  winters,  (1841-42  and  1842-43)  he  delivered  two 
courses  on  chemistry,  and  they  also  were  repeated.  Professor 
J.  P.  Cooke,  who  followed  Silliman  many  years  later,  declared 
that  he  was  led,  as  a  boy,  by  these  lectures  to  devote  himself  to 
science.  Hundreds  of  able  lecturers  have  appeared  on  this  fa- 
laboratory:  Sherlock  J.  Andrews,  William  P.  Blake,  George  T.  Bowen,  Wil- 
liam H.  Brewer,  George  J.  Brush,  James  D.  Dana,  Chester  Dewey,  Sereno  E. 
Dwight,  Amos  Eaton,  William  C.  Fowler,  Robert  Hare,  Edward  Hitchcock, 
Oliver  P.  Hubbard,  T.  Sterry  Hunt,  Edward  H.  Leffingwell,  John  P.  Norton, 
Denison  Olmsted,  Charles  H.  Porter,  Charles  H.  Rockwell,  Charles  U. 
Shepard,  Benjamin  Silliman,  Jr.,  Benjamin  D.  Silliman,  Mason  C.  Weld. 


BENJAMIN  SILLIMAN  109 

mous  platform,  but  only  one  has  spoken  so  often, — Professor 
Louis  Agassiz, — and  he  alone  equalled  Silliman  in  the  presenta- 
tion of  a  scientific  theme  to  a  public  audience. 

It  appears  that  he  began  his  career  as  a  public  lecturer  as  early 
as  1831,  when  James  Brewster  of  New  Haven,  a  manufacturer 
of  carriages,  persuaded  Silliman  and  his  colleague  Olmsted  to 
give  courses  of  lectures  to  mechanics  and  others  who  could  not 
attend  instruction  in  the  day.  It  is  said  that  this  was  the  first 
time  in  our  country  when  college  professors  went  out  to  lecture  to 
the  people  upon  natural  and  mechanical  science.  In  following 
years,  we  hear  of  this  popular  exponent  of  science  in  Hartford, 
Boston,  Lowell,  New  York  and  Baltimore.  Still  later,  he  went 
to  Mobile,  New  Orleans  and  Natchez.  In  1852  he  lectured 
before  the  Smithsonian  Institution  in  Washington,  and  in  1855, 
when  he  was  seventy-five  years  old,  he  acceded  to  a  repeated 
request  and  lectured  in  St.  Louis. 

Silliman  regarded  the  Lowell  lectures  as  the  crowning  success 
of  his  professional  life  and  this  was  doubtless  true  of  his  appear- 
ance in  public.  His  real  distinction,  however,  did  not  rest  on 
these  transient  victories,  but  on  his  career  at  home  as  a  pro- 
fessor in  Yale  College  and  on  his  long  service  in  maintaining  the 
American  Journal  of  Science. 

In  these  days  when  scientific  periodicals  are  numerous,  and 
when  every  branch  of  investigation  has  its  special  journal,  it 
requires  some  effort  of  the  imagination  to  appreciate  the  state 
of  things  in  the  early  part  of  the  last  century.  Three  learned 
societies,  the  American  Academy  in  Boston,  the  American 
Philosophical  Society  in  Philadelphia,  and  the  Connecticut  Acad- 
emy in  New  Haven,  were  engaged  in  the  publication  of  memoirs. 
The  American  Journal  of  Mineralogy,  edited  by  Dr.  Archibald 
Bruce  in  1810,  died  in  early  childhood  at  the  age  of  one  year. 
As  Silliman  was  traversing  Long  Island  Sound  one  day,  in  1817, 
he  met  Colonel  George  Gibbs  who  urged  upon  him  the  estab- 
ishment  of  a  new  journal  of  science,  "that  we  might  not  only 
secure,"  he  says,  "  the  advantages  already  gained,  but  make 
advances  of  still  more  importance."  After  much  consideration 


no         LEADING  AMERICAN  MEN  OF  SCIENCE 

and  mature  advice,  Silliman  determined  to  make  the  attempt. 
Out  of  deference  to  Dr.  Bruce,  then  in  declining  health,  he  asked 
his  opinion  of  the  project,  which  was  given  at  once  in  favor  of 
the  effort,  and  moreover  in  approbation  of  the  plan,  which 
included  the  entire  circle  of  the  physical  sciences  and  their 
applications. 

At  the  Yale  Bicentennial  Celebration  in  1901  there  were  re- 
peated allusions  to  the  value  of  this  publication,  and  the  words 
of  one  of  the  speakers  on  that  occasion  were  these: 

"Benjamin  Silliman  showed  great  sagacity  when  he  perceived, 
in  1818,  the  importance  of  publication,  and  established,  of  his 
own  motion,  on  a  plan  that  is  still  maintained,  a  repository  of 
scientific  papers,  which  through  its  long  history  has  been  recog- 
nized both  in  Europe  and  in  the  United  States,  as  comprehensive 
and  accurate;  a  just  and  sympathetic  recorder  of  original  work; 
a  fair  critic  of  domestic  and  foreign  researches;  and  a  constant 
promoter  of  experiment  and  observation.  It  is  an  unique  history. 
For  more  than  eighty  years  this  journal  has  been  edited  and  pub- 
lished by  members  of  a  single  family, — three  generations  of  them, 
— with  unrequited  sacrifices,  unquestioned  authority,  unparalleled 
success.  In  the  profit  and  loss  account,  it  appears  that  the  col- 
lege has  never  contributed  to  the  financial  support,  but  it  has 
itself  gained  reputation  from  the  fact  that  throughout  the  world 
of  science,  Silliman  and  Dana,  successive  editors,  from  volume  i 
to  volume  162,  have  been  known  as  members  of  the  Faculty  of 
Yale.  I  am  sure  that  no  periodical,  I  am  not  sure  that  any  acad- 
emy or  university  in  the  land,  has  had  as  strong  an  influence  upon 
science  as  the  American  Journal  of  Science  and  Arts." 

Professor  Joseph  Henry  has  left  on  record  an  extended  appreci- 
ation of  the  American  Journal.  Its  establishment  and  mainte- 
nance, he  says, 

"Under  restricted  pecuniary  means,  was  an  enterprise  which 
involved  an  amount  of  thought  and  of  labor  for  the  expenditure 
of  which  the  editor  has  well  merited  the  gratitude  not  only  of  his 
own  countrymen,  but  of  the  world.  It  has  served  not  only  to 
awaken  a  taste  for  science  in  this  country  by  keeping  its  readers 
continually  informed  of  the  discoveries  in  science  wherever  it  is 
cultivated;  but  above  all,  it  has  called  into  the  field  of  original  ob- 


BENJAMIN  SILLIMAN  ill 

servation  and  research  a  corps  of  efficient  laborers,  and  has  fur- 
nished a  ready  means  of  presenting  the  results  of  their  labors  to 
the  world,  through  a  medium  well  suited  to  insure  attention  and 
to  secure  proper  acknowledgment  for  originality  and  priority. 
Nor  are  the  results  which  have  been  thus  evoked  few  or  unim- 
portant, since  many  of  them  relate  to  the  objects  and  phenomena 
of  a  vast  continent  almost  entirely  unexplored,  in  which  Nature 
has  exhibited  some  of  her  operations  on  a  scale  of  grandeur  well 
calculated  to  correct  the  immature  deductions  from  too  limited  a 
survey  of  similar  appearances  in  the  Old  World.  For  conducting 
such  a  journal,  Professor  Silliman  was  admirably  well  qualified. 
He  occupied  a  conspicuous  position  in  one  of  the  oldest  and  most 
respectable  institutions  of  learning  in  this  country;  he  was  inti- 
mately acquainted  with  the  literature  of  science;  was  a  fluent, 
clear,  and  impressive  writer,  an  accurate  critic,  and  above  all,  a 
sage  and  impartial  judge." 

For  an  estimate  of  the  scientific  work  of  this  remarkable  man, 
I  have  the  pleasure  of  adding  an  appreciation  by  Professor  A. 
W.  Dwight,  P.  D.,  at  one  time  Professor  of  Molecular  Physics 
and  Chemistry,  and  afterwards  of  Experimental  Physics  in 
Yale  University.  His  official  and  personal  relation  to  Silliman 
qualified  him  in  an  exceptional  manner  for  this  labor  of  love. 

"While  it  is  doubtless  true  that  Professor  Silliman's  reputation 
and  influence  were  more  largely  due  to  his  remarkable  skill  as  a 
teacher,  and  to  his  brilliant  courses  of  public  lectures  upon  science, 
the  fact  should  not  be  overlooked  that  he  showed  great  activity 
as  an  investigator  also.  One  of  his  earliest  scientific  publications 
was  an  account  of  the  famous  meteorite  which  fell  in  Weston, 
Conn.,  Dec.  14,  1807.  In  addition  to  the  earlier  reports  of  the 
fall  published  by  him,  which  aroused  great  interest,  and  were 
widely  copied,  he  made  a  chemical  analysis  of  the  meteorite,  an 
account  of  which  was  communicated  to  the  American  Philosophi- 
cal Society,  of  Philadelphia,  and  published  in  its  Transactions. 
It  was  subsequently  republished  in  the  Memoirs  of  the  Connecti- 
cut Academy  of  Arts  and  Sciences,  and  was  finally  reprinted  in 
the  American  Journal  of  Science.  This  account,  which  at  once 
attracted  attention  in  scientific  circles,  was  deemed  of  such  in- 
terest and  importance  that  it  was  not  only  republished  in  various 
scientific  journals,  but  was  read  aloud  in  the  Philosophical  So- 
ciety of  London,  and  also  in  the  French  Academy. 


H2          LEADING  AMERICAN  MEN  OF  SCIENCE 

"Very  early  after  entering  upon  his  professorship  he  made 
many  experiments  with  the  blowpipe  which  had  been  invented, 
not  long  before,  by  his  friend  Professor  Hare.  This  apparatus 
he  greatly  improved  by  an  arrangement  for  storing  the  two  gases 
in  separate  recipients,  and  leading  them  to  the  burner  by  separate 
tubes,  so  that  they  were  united  only  at  the  tip,  thus  securing  for 
the  first  time  entire  safety  from  explosions.  To  him  is  also  due 
the  name  compound  blowpipe  by  which  the  instrument  was  gen- 
erally known.  He  continued  the  work  of  Hare  upon  the  fusibility 
of  various  materials,  and  added  to  the  list  many  substances  which 
had  hitherto  been  considered  infusible. 

"For  the  more  adequate  illustration  of  the  principles  of  elec- 
tricity he  had  caused  to  be  constructed  a  powerful  battery  of  many 
cells,  then  often  called  a  deflagrator,  by  means  of  which  he  was 
enabled  to  exhibit  the  phenomena  of  the  voltaic  arc  with  unusual 
splendor  and  completeness.  It  was  in  the  course  of  experiments 
with  this  apparatus  that  he  observed  the  fusion  and  volatilization 
of  carbon  in  the  arc,  and  the  transference  of  the  carbon  by  the 
current,,  from  the  positive  pole,  where  it  left  a  crater-like  cavity, 
to  the  negative  pole,  where  it  built  up  a  kind  of  stalagmitic  ac- 
cretion, considerably  increasing  the  length  of  the  pole.  This  re- 
sult aroused  great  interest,  and,  though  questioned  by  some,  was 
fully  confirmed  by  Despretz  and  others  who  had  repeated  his  ex- 
periments. When  the  work  of  Gay-Lussac  in  obtaining  potas- 
sium from  its  hydrate  was  made  known  he  successfully  repeated 
the  experiment,  and  was  doubtless  the  first  person  in  the  United 
States  to  obtain  the  element  in  the  metallic  form. 

''These  researches  had  met  wide  recognition  and  were  esteemed 
as  of  great  interest  and  permanent  value.  But  though  the  most 
important,  they  constituted  but  a  small  proportion  of  his  contribu- 
tions to  science.  Numerous  articles  upon  scientific  questions 
were  published  by  him  in  the  American  Journal  of  Science  and 
elsewhere.  Of  these  the  Catalogue  of  Scientific  Memoirs,  pub- 
lished by  the  Royal  Society  of  London,  enumerates  by  title 
more  than  sixty,  and  several  more  which  were  published  by 
him  in  collaboration  with  others.  Many  of  these  contributions 
were  republished  abroad,  some  of  them  in  several  different  jour- 
nals. 

"Among  other  professional  labors,  less  strictly  in  the  way  of 
scientific  research,  but  still  of  value  as  original  investigations,  may 
be  mentioned  a  laborious  exploration  of  the  gold  mines  of  Vir- 
ginia, a  study  of  the  coal  formations  of  Pennsylvania,  and  a 
scientific  examination  of  the  culture  and  manufacture  of  sugar. 


BENJAMIN  SILLIMAN  113 

The  latter  was  undertaken  by  appointment  of  the  United  States 
Government,  and  his  results  were  embodied  in  a  voluminous  re- 
port which  was  published  by  the  Government. 

"  These  labors  exhibit  Professor  Silliman  as  possessing  the 
genuine  instinct  of  discovery,  the  quick  recognition  of  new  and 
interesting  facts,  and  enthusiasm  in  following  them  up  to  novel 
and  important  results.  That  his  successes  in  other  directions 
somewhat  overshadowed  them  does  not  detract  from  their  per- 
manent value,  and  it  cannot  be  doubted  that,  but  for  the  absorp- 
tion of  his  energies  in  his  devotion  to  the  duties  of  a  laborious  and 
responsible  position,  they  would  have  had  a  much  greater  develop- 
ment." 

These  sketches  of  the  services  of  Silliman  which  entitle  him 
to  the  grateful  remembrance  of  his  countrymen,  will  now  be  sup- 
plemented by  some  further  data  in  respect  to  his  life. 

In  the  autumn  of  1819,  in  company  with  Mr.  Daniel  Wads- 
worth  of  Hartford,  he  made  a  journey  to  Quebec,  and  his  narra- 
tive of  previous  travels  in  Europe  having  been  most  favorably 
received  by  the  public,  Silliman  was  naturally  led  to  publish  a 
similar  account  of  his  American  experiences.  This  volume  is 
entitled  to  a  memorable  place  in  Americana.  It  is  full  of 
allusions  to  the  physical  aspect  of  the  country  which  was  traveled, 
from  Hartford  to  Albany,  through  Lake  Champlain  to  Montreal, 
from  Montreal  to  Quebec,  and  afterwards  down  the  Connecticut 
River  to  Hartford.  Historical  incidents  are  constantly  intro- 
duced, and  comments  upon  the  people  whom  he  met.  The  pen- 
cil drawings  of  Mr.  Wadsworth  were  reproduced  for  the  illustra- 
tion of  the  book  by  an  engraver,  "a  young  man  of  twenty,  almost 
entirely  self-taught,  whose  talents  were  deserving  of  encourage- 
ment and  who  had  been  highly  spoken  of  by  the  first  historical 
painter  in  this  country."  The  concluding  remark  of  the  author 
may  excite  a  smile: 

"  I  have  said  very  little  of  the  public  houses  and  accommoda- 
tions, on  the  journey.  Should  this  be  thought  a  deficiency,  it  is 
easily  supplied;  for,  we  found  them,  almost  without  exception,  so 
comfortable,  quiet,  and  agreeable,  that  we  had  neither  occasion, 
nor  inclination  to  find  fault.  Great  civility,  and  a  disposition  to 


H4         LEADING  AMERICAN  MEN  OF  SCIENCE 

please  their  guests,  were  generally  conspicuous  at  the  inns;  almost 
everywhere,  when  we  wished  it,  we  found  a  private  parlour  and 
a  separate  table,  and  rarely,  did  we  hear  any  profane  or  course 
language,  or  observe  any  rude  and  boisterous  deportment." 

During  the  second  visit  to  Europe,  just  alluded  to,  Silliman 
had  the  opportunity  of  meeting  face  to  face  many  of  the  men  with 
whom,  as  editor  of  the  American  Journal  oj  Science,  he  had  cor- 
responded, and  he  was  everywhere  received  with  the  considera- 
tion which  was  his  due.  His  enthusiasm  in  looking  for  the  first 
time  upon  Vesuvius  and  JEtna,,  and  upon  the  glaciers  of  Switzer- 
land is  charmingly  recorded.  It  is  hardly  surpassed  by  the 
gratification  which  he  had  in  the  society  of  Sir  Charles  Lyell  and 
Dr.  Mantell  in  London,  and  in  seeing  Milne  Edwards,  Arago, 
Brongniart  and  Cordier  in  Paris,  and  in  meeting  Humboldt, 
Ritter,  the  Roses  and  other  savants  in  Berlin. 

This  man  of  science  was  an  intense  patriot.  Born  in  the  time 
of  the  Revolution,  the  son  of  a  successful  leader  in  the  colonial 
forces,  his  earliest  days  made  him  familiar  with  the  principles, 
the  methods  and  the  men  who  established  our  national  govern- 
ment. He  married  into  the  Trumbull  family  preeminent  not 
only  in  Connecticut,  but  throughout  the  colonies,  for  devotion 
to  the  cause  of  liberty,  and  many  important  papers  came  into 
his  possession.  He  was  closely  associated  during  many  years 
with  Colonel  Trumbull,  the  aide-de-camp  of  Washington.  When 
New  Haven  was  in  danger  of  attack  in  the  War  of  1812,  he  was 
one  of  those  who  handled  a  spade  in  the  construction  of  batteries 
upon  the  harbor  side  of  the  New  Haven  bar.  From  his  earliest 
manhood  he  was  keenly  alive  to  the  evils  of  slavery,  although 
he  did  not  on  that  account  turn  away  from  friendships  with  men 
in  the  South.  As  the  crisis  of  the  Civil  War  drew  near,  he  was 
outspoken  for  the  restriction  of  slavery,  and  his  support  of  the 
Kansas  defenders  of  freedom  exposed  him  to  much  obloquy. 
During  the  war  he  was  an  earnest  promoter  of  the  Union, 
fearless  and  unfaltering.  One  incident  during  the  Kansas  ex- 
citement brought  him  great  reproach  from  sympathizers  with 
the  South, — but  he  was  undisturbed  by  the  contumely  cast 


BENJAMIN  SILLIMAN  115 

upon  him.    The  story  is  thus  briefly  told  by  Mr.  Henry  T. 
Blake: 

"In  March,  1856,  occurred  the  famous  Kansas  Rifle  meeting 
in  the  North  Church.  It  was  begun  as  a  semi-religious  service 
held  on  a  week-day  evening  to  bid  farewell  to  a  band  of  citizens 
who  were  about  going  to  Kansas  as  settlers  in  the  interest  of  free- 
dom. Henry  Ward  Beecher  addressed  them,  and  there  was  not 
a  thought  of  presenting  them  with  arms,  until  it  was  sponta- 
neously suggested  by  that  noble  embodiment  of  every  personal  and 
civic  virtue,  Prof.  Silliman  senior.  The  rifles  never  did  much 
damage  directly  to  the  Border  Ruffians,  but  the  fame  of  the  event 
spread  throughout  the  country.  The  hint  was  taken,  and  the  ex- 
ample followed  by  every  emigrant  aid  society  which  sent  out  its 
party  thereafter,  with  the  result  that  Kansas  was  saved,  and  formed 
an  outpost  of  the  utmost  importance  in  the  war  for  the  Union." 

The  domestic  life  of  Silliman  was  exceptionally  happy.  He 
married  in  1809  Harriet  Trumbull,  daughter  of  the  second  Gov- 
ernor Trumbull  of  Connecticut,  and  their  house  was  the  home  of 
simple  and  refined  hospitality  where  neighbors,  students  and  kin- 
dred, as  well  as  strangers  of  distinction  from  every  part  of  this 
country  and  from  Europe,  were  sure  of  a  welcome.  For  more 
than  fifty  years  he  dwelt  on  Hillhouse  Avenue,  having,  for  a  long 
period,  his  son  Benjamin  as  his  next  door  neighbor  on  the  one 
side,  and  on  the  other,  his  son-in-law  James  D.  Dana.1  After  the 
death  of  Mrs.  Silliman  in  1850,  he  made  a  second  visit  to  Europe 
in  company  with  his  son  Professor  Benjamin  Silliman,  Jr.,  and  not 
long  after  his  return,  he  married  Mrs.  Sarah  McClellan  Webb, 
(a  relation  of  his  first  wife),  of  Woodstock,  Conn.,  who  survived 
him. 

When  he  reached  the  age  of  seventy  years,  Silliman  tendered 
his  resignation.  Similar  action  was  previously  taken  by  President 
Day  and  subsequently  by  Kingsley,  Woolsey  and  the  younger 

1  The  daughters  of  Professor  Silliman  were  married  to  John  B.  Church, 
Oliver  P.  Hubbard,  James  D.  Dana  and  Edward  W.  Oilman.  His  son  Ben- 
jamin was  a  professor  in  Yale  College  from  1846  until  hte  death  in  1885. 
Edward  S.  Dana,  now  editor  of  the  American  Journal  of  Science,  is  a  grand- 
son of  the  founder. 


Ii6         LEADING  AMERICAN  MEN  OF  SCIENCE 

Dwight,  so  that  the  Psalmist's  limit  had  almost  become  the  usage 
of  Yale  College;  although  to  this  rule,  there  have  been  and  there 
ought  to  be  exceptions.  In  Silliman's  case,  the  authorities  re- 
quested him  to  recede  from  his  purpose  and  he  did  so  for  a  brief 
period.  His  end  came  in  New  Haven,  November  24,  1864,  in  his 
eighty-sixth  year,  while  his  mental  faculties  were  not  impaired  and 
his  bodily  strength  scarcely  abated. 

He  was  the  recipient  of  many  scientific  and  academic  honors, 
though  it  was  not  customary  to  bestow  them  as  freely  in  his  days 
as  it  is  in  these  times,  and  their  enumeration  seems  trivial  compared 
with  the  record  of  his  work  and  the  recognition  bestowed  upon 
him  by  distinguished  men.  Of  more  value  than  diplomas  are  the 
letters  he  received  from  his  compeers  at  home  flpd  abroad. 

It  is  generally  admitted  that  no  one  has  ever  been  connected 
with  Yale  College  entitled  to  greater  affection  and  admiration 
than  that  bestowed  on  the  one  of  its  faculty  who  lived  to  be  called 
the  Nestor  of  American  Science.  Among  the  innumerable  trib- 
utes to  his  memory,  I  will  select  these  words  of  a  man  of  rare 
ability  and  discrimination, — Professor  Jeffries  Wyman,  the  com- 
parative anatomist,  of  Harvard  University. 

/*  "For  Professor  Silliman's  life  and  character  I  have  a  feeling  of 
deep  reverence.  This  is  greater  than  that  towards  any  other  per- 
son with  whom  I  have  come  in  contact  in  the  relation  of  a  teacher. 
I  prize  highly,  very  highly,  what  he  taught  me  in  science,  and  the 
direction  he  gave  to  my  studies,  all  unconsciously  to  himself;  but 
I  have  no  words  to  express  my  admiration  of  the  moral  dignity  of 
his  character  and  its  beneficent  influence.  After  the  lapse  of  a 
quarter  of  a  century,  I  find  myself  often  recurring  to  the  teach- 
ings and  example  set  before  us  during  the  seasons  he  passed  in 
Boston.  His  cordial  greeting;  his  dignified,  yet  often  joyous  man- 
ner; his  freedom  from  bigotry;  his  earnestness  and  devotion  to  the 
pursuits  of  knowledge;  his  readiness  to  impart  his  stores  of  learn- 
ing; his  kindness  of  heart,  and,  above  all,  his  great  Christian  ex- 
cellence, his  peaceful  and  finished  life,  have  made  him  to  me  a 
model  man." 


s 


Professor  Fisher  prefixed  to  his  memoirs  some  lines  of  Cowper 
which  were  copied  again  by  Dr.  Dwight,  and  with  a  third  repeti- 


BENJAMIN  SILLIMAN 


117 


tion  of  these  appropriate  words,  I  conclude  my  tribute  to  one  of 
the  best  of  men. 

"Peace  to  the  memory  of  a  man  of  worth, 
A  man  of  letters,  and  of  manners  too! 
Of  manners  sweet  as  virtue  always  wears 
When  gay  good-nature  dresses  her  in  smiles. 
He  graced  a  college,  in  which  order  yet 
Was  sacred;  and  was  honor'd,  loved,  and  wept, 
By  more  than  one  conspicuous  there." 


O^^^€i^ri^L^ 


iM*~ 


^ 


JOSEPH  HENRY 

PHYSICIST 

1797-1878 
BY  SIMON  NEWCOMB 

THE  visitor  to  the  great  rotunda  of  the  Congressional  Library 
at  Washington  will  see  among  the  ^tatues  which  surround  it  and 
illustrative  of  the  history  of  thought  one  bearing  the  very  simple 
name  of  HENRY.  The  object  of  the  present  chapter  is  to  present 
a  brief  sketch  of  the  man  whose  memory  is  thus  honored. 

Joseph  Henry  was  the  first  American  after  Franklin  to  reach 
high  eminence  as  an  origin ajMiny  estimator  in  pJiYsicaLscifinc^^  He 
was  born  in  Albany,  December  17,  1797.  It  should  be  remarked 
that  there  is  some  doubt  whether  the  year  was  not  1799.  But  the 
writer  has  reason  to  believe  the  earlier  date  to  be  the  correct  one. 
Little  more  is  known  of  his  ancestors  than  that  his  grandparents 
were  Scotch-Irish,  and  landed  in  this  country  about  the  beginning 
of  the  Revolutionary  War.  Nothing  was  known  of  his  father 
which  would  explain  his  having  had  such  a  son.  His  mother  was 
a  woman  of  great  refinement,  intelligence  and  strength  of  charac- 
ter, but  of  a  delicate  physical  constitution.  T.ikf  th<>  mnthprg  p£ 
many  nthpr  or^t  men,  ch**  wQg  flf  f^pfT)]y  devotional  chfirfictfiF- 
Sfie~was  a  Presbyterian  of  the  old-fashioned  Scottish  stamp  and 
exacted  from  her  children  the  strictest  performance  of  religious 
duty. 

The  educational  advantages  of  young  Joseph  were  no  other 
than  those  commonly  enjoyed  by  youth  born  in  -the  same  walk  of 
life.  At  the  age  of  seven  years  he  left  his  paternal  home  and  went 
to  live  with  his  grandmother  at  Galway,  where  he  attended  the 
district  school  for  three  years.  At  the  age  of  ten  he  was  placed  in 

119 


120          LEADING  AMERICAN  MEN  OF  SCIENCE 

a  store  kept  by  a  Mr.  Broderick,  and  spent  part  of  the  day  in 
business  duties  and  part  at  school.  This  position  he  kept  until 
the  age  of  fifteen.  During  these  early  years  his  intellectual  qual- 
ities were  fully  displayed,  but  in  a  direction  totally  different  from 
that  which  they  ultimately  took.  He  was  slender  in  person,  not 
/V  vigorous  in  health,  with  almost  the  delicate  complexion  and  fea- 

tures of  a  girl.  His  favorite  reading  was  not  that  of  his  school- 
books,  nor  did  it  indicate  the  future  field  of  his  activities.  His 
great  delight  was  books  of  romance.  The  lounging  place  of  the 
'young  villagers  of  an  evening  was  around  the  stove  in  Mr.  Brod- 
erick's  store.  Here  young  Henry,  although  the  slenderest  of  the 
group,  was  the  central  figure,  retailing  to  those  around  him  the 
stories  which  he  had  read,  or  which  his  imagination  had  suggested. 
He  was  of  a  highly  imaginative  turn  of  mind,  and  seemed  to  live 
t  in  the  ideal  world  of  fairies. 

At  the  age  of  fifteen  he  returned  to  Albany,  and,  urged  by  his 
imaginative  taste,  joined  a  private  dramatic  company,  of  which  he 
soon  became  the  leading  spirit.  There  was  every  prospect  of  his 
devoting  himself  to  the  stage  when,  at  the  age  of  sixteen,  accident 
turned  his  mental  activities  into  an  entirely  different  direction. 
^Being  detained  indoors  by  a  slight  indisposition,  a  friend  loaned 
him  a  copy  of  Dr.  Gregory's  lectures  on  Experimental  Philos- 
ophy r  Asfronop^ji^  ^hp^isfry.  htelbecame  intensely  interested 
in  the  field  of  thought  which  this  work  opened  to  him.  Here  in 
the  domain  of  nature  were  subjects  of  investigation  more  worthy 
of  attention  than  anything  in  the  ideal  world  in  which  his  imagi- 
nation had  hitherto  roamed.  He  felt  that  there  was  an  imagina- 
tion of  the  intellectual  faculties  as  well  as  of  the  emotions  and  that 
the  search  after  truth  was  even  more  attractive  than  the  erection 
of  fairy  palaces.  He  determined  to  make  the  knowledge  of  the 
newly  opened  domain  the  great  object  of  his  life,  without  attempt- 
ing to  confine  himself  to  any  narrow  sphere.  Mr.  Boyd,  noticing 
his  great  interest  in  the  book,  presented  it  to  him;  and  it  formed 
one  of  his  cherished  possessions  as  long  as  he  lived.  His  appre- 
ciation of  it  was  expressed  in  the  following  memorandum  written 
upon  the  inside  of  the  cover: 


JOSEPH  HENRY 


121 


"This  book  although  by  no  means  a  profound  work,  has  under 
Providence  exerted  a  remarkable  influence  on  my  life.  It  acci- 
dentally fell  into  my  hands  when  I  was  about  sixteen  years  old, 
and  was  the  first  book  I  ever  read  with  attention.  It  opened  to 
me  a  new  world  of  thought  and  enjoyment;  invested  things  be- 
fore almost  unnoticed,  with  the  highest  interest;  fixed  my  mind 
on  the  study  of  nature;  and  caused  me  to  resolve  at  the  time  of 
reading  it,  that  I  would  immediately  commence  to  devote  my 
life  to  the  acquisition  of  knowledge. 

"  J.  H." 

His  mother's  means  were,  however,  too  limited  to  permit  of  his 
constant  attendance  at  a  school.  He  began  by  taking  evening 
lessons  from  two  of  the  professors  in  the  Albany  Academy,  his 
main  subjects  of  study  being  geometry  and  mechanics.  For  a 
period  he  was  teacher  in  a  country  school.  He  thus  gained  a  small 
sum  which  enabled  him  to  enter  as  a  regular  student  at  the  Albany 
Academy  where,  however,  his  studies  had  again  to  be  interrupted. 
After  another  brief  absence  he  returned  to  his  school,  where  he 
finished  his  studies  when  about  eighteen  years  of  age.  His  record 
was  now  so  good  that  Dr.  Romeyn  Beck,  the  principal  of  the 
Academy,  recommended  him  to  the  position  of  private  tutor  in  the 
family  of  General  Stephen  Van  Rensselaer,  the  patron,  who  was 
also  officer  of  the  first  board  of  trustees  of  the  Academy.  He 
found  this  situation  to  be  a  very  pleasant  one,  and  was  treated 
with  great  consideration  by  the  family  of  Mr.  Van  Rensselaer. 
His  duties  required  only  his  morning  hours  so  that  he  could  devote 
his  entire  afternoons  to  mathematical  and  physical  studies.  In 
the  former  he  went  so  far  as  to  read  the  Mecanique  Analytique  of 

La  Grange.  YrV*-"  JU-fc^  ? 

Thejnyestigator  never  works  at  |fig  fr>*t  withmit  th*  aid  anH 
encouragement  of  ]\\<\  ffMrmr.^  TMC  indispensable  require- 


ment was  afforded  to  the  young  scientist  by  the  organization  of  the 
Albany  Institute  in  1824,  of  which  the  patron  was  the  first  Presi- 
dent. Henry  at  once  became  an  active  member  of  this  society. 
His  first  paper  was  read  October  30,  1824,  on  the  Chemical  and 
Mechanical  Effects  of  Steam.  In  this  paper  he  gave  the  results 
of  very  ingenious  experiments  on  the  temperature  of  steam  escap- 


122          LEADING  AMERICAN  MEN  OF  SCIENCE 

ing  from  a  boiler  as  measured  by  a  thermometer  under  various 
circumstances. 

Placing  the  thermometer  in  steam-jet  at  a  distance  of  four 

4  inches  from  the  outlet,  and  then  applying  more  and  more  heat  to 

the  water  in  the  boiler,  he  found  that  the  steam,  instead  of  being 
hotter,  actually  grew  cooler  the  hotter  the  fire  was  made.  At 
the  highest  pressure  the  steam  at  a  little  greater  distance  would 
not  scald  the  hand  at  all  although  it  would  scald  it  when  the 
pressure  was  lower.  The  explanation  was  that  the  great  expan- 
sion caused  by  the  increased  temperature  of  the  steam  when  it 
first  escaped  produced  a  stronger  cooling  effect,  which  more 
than  made  up  for  the  higher  temperature.  Carrying  out  the 
same  idea  of  the  production  of  cold  by  the  rarefaction  of  air, 
N^  he  published  the  principles  by  which  to-day  ice  is  manufactured 
by  the  condensation  and  rarefaction  of  air.  Half  a  pint  of  water 
was  poured  into  a  strong  copper  vessel  of  a  globular  form,  and 
having  a  capacity  of  five  gallons;  a  tube  of  one-fourth  of  an  inch 
caliber,  with  a  number  of  holes  near  the  lower  end,  and  a  stop- 
cock attached  to  the  other  extremity,  was  firmly  screwed  into  the 
neck  of  the  vessel;  the  lower  end  dipped  into  the  water,  but  a 
number  of  holes  were  above  the  surface  of  the  liquid,  so  that  a 
jet  of  air  mingled  with  the  water  might  be  thrown  from  the  foun- 
tain. The  apparatus  was  then  charged  with  condensed  air,  by 
means  of  a  powerful  condensing-pump,  until  the  pressure  was 
estimated  at  nine  atmospheres.  During  the  condensation  the 
vessel  became  sensibly  warm.  After  suffering  the  apparatus  to 
cool  down  to  the  temperature  of  the  room,  the  stop-cock  was 
opened:  the  air  rushed  out  with  great  violence,  carrying  with  it  a 
quantity  of  water,  which  was  instantly  converted  into  snow. 
After  a  few  seconds,  the  tube  became  filled  with  ice,  which  almost 
entirely  stopped  the  current  of  air.  The  neck  of  the  vessel  was 
then  partially  unscrewed,  so  as  to  allow  the  condensed  air  to 
rush  out  around  the  sides  of  the  screw:  in  this  state  the  tempera- 
ture of  the  whole  interior  atmosphere  was  so  much  reduced  as  to 
freeze  the  remaining  water  in  the  vessel. 

His  delicate  constitution  now  suffered  so  much  from  confine- 


JOSEPH  HENRY  123 

ment  and  study  that  he  accepted  an  invitation  to  go  on  a  survey- 
ing expedition  to  the  western  part  of  the  state.  As  a  result  of 
this  expedition  he  published  a  topographical  sketch  of  New 
York  which  appeared  in  the  Transactions  of  the  Albany  In- 
stitute. It  comprised  a  sketch  of  the  physical  geography  of  the 
state  with  especial  reference  to  the  newly  inaugurated  canal 
system.  fL**^^s*JUt-  O>  f***^*Mj/  y 

In  this  wnrfc Jia  rgn^^itjoT^w^  rgmpfc f f ?y  JfiStTgSiL  anc*  ne 

returned  home  with  a  health  and  vigor  which  never  failed  him 
during  the  remainder  of  his  long  and  arduous  life.  Soon  after 
his  return  he  was  elected  Professor  of  Mathematics  in  the  Albany 
Academy.  Here  a  new  field  was  opened  to  him.  It  is  one  of 
the  most  curious  features  in  the  intellectual  history  of  our  country 
that,  after  producing  such  a  man  as  Franklin,  it  found  no  succes- 
sor to  him  in  the  field  of  science  for  half  a  century  after  his 
scientific  work  was  done.  There  had  been  without  doubt  plenty 
of  professors  of  eminent  attainments  who  amused  themselves 
and  instructed  their  pupils  and  the  public  by  physical  experi- 
ments. But  in  the  department  of  electricity,  that  in  which 
Franklin  took  so  prominent  a  position,  it  may  be  doubted 
whether  they  enunciated  a  single  generalization  which  will  enter 
into  the  history  of  the  sciences.  This  interregnum  closes  with 
the  researches  now  commenced  by  Professor  Henry^ 

That  these  researches  received  the  attention  that  they  did  and 
led  to  the  author  holding  so  high  a  place  in  the  estimation  of  his 
fellow-men  must  be  regarded  as  very  creditable  to  the  people  of 
Albany  at  that  time,  at  a  period  of  our  history  when  the  question 
of  supposed  usefulness  was  apt  to  dominate  all  others.  It  was 
then  seventy  years  since  Franklin  had  drawn  electricity  from  the 
clouds,  and  fifty  years  since  Volta  and  Galvani  had  shown  how  an 
electric  current  could  be  produced  by  dropping  metals  into  acid; 
and  what  effect  such  a  current  had  on  the  legs  of  a  frog.  And 
yet,  during  these  two  generations,  no  one  had  any  idea  that  these 
discoveries  could  ever  be  put  to  any  practical  use,  except  so  far 
as  the  destructive  agency  of  lightning  could  be  annihilated  by 
steel-pointed  conductors.  Under  such  conditions  Henry  might 


124         LEADING  AMERICAN  MEN  OF  SCIENCE 

well  have  seemed  to  his  fellows  as  a  man  who,  though  possessing 
great  talents  was  ready  to  waste  his  time  in  investigating  matters 
of  no  human  interest.  But  instead  of  taking  this  view  he  received 
such  encouragement  and  support  that  he  was  enabled  to  continue 
investigations  into  the  laws  of  electricity,  and  to  make  new  dis- 
coveries which  have  since  proved  to  be  of  great  practical  impor- 
tance in  the  application  of  that  agent.  To  give  a  clear  idea  of  a 
few  of  these  investigations  we  must  recall  some  of  the  laws  of 
electricity. 

Before  Henry's  time  it  was  known  that,  when  a  wire  was 
wrapped  around  a  piece  of  iron,  and  an  electric  current  passed 
through  the  wire,  the  iron  instantly  became  a  magnet,  attract- 
ing every  piece  of  iron  in  its  neighborhood.  If  the  iron  was 
well  annealed  and  soft,  it  lost  its  magnetism,  and  its  attraction 
ceased  the  moment  the  current  was  interrupted.  Every  one 
who  has  seen  the  Morse  telegraph  at  work  knows  it  is  by  this 
property  of  the  electric  current  that  messages  are  transmitted. 
Henry's  first  experiments  were  devoted  to  showing  how  the 
power  of  a  single  battery  to  produce  this  effect  could  be  enor- 
mously increased  by  passing  more  and  more  coils  around  the 
magnet.  Carrying  forward  his  experiments  he  made  enormous 
magnets  which  held  up  weights  greater  than  anyone  had  before 
supposed  a  magnet  could  ever  do.  With  a  battery  having  a 
single  plate  of  zinc,  of  half  a  square  foot  of  surface,  he  made  a 
magnet  lift  a  weight  of  750  pounds, — more  than  thirty-five 
times  its  own  weight.  In  connection  with  this  experiment  he 
showed  the  difference  between  the  quantity  of  electricity  and 
its  projectile  force,  a  distinction  at  the  base  of  all  modern  appli- 
ances of  electricity. 

At  Albany  in  1831-32  Henry  showed  for  the  first  time  how 
easily  an  electric  telegraph  could  be  constructed.  He  ran  the 
wires  of  an  electric  circuit  several  miles  in  length  around  one  of 
the  upper  rooms  in  the  Albany  Academy.  An  electric  current 
was  sent  around  this  circuit  from  a  small  battery  passing  in  its 
course  through  the  coils  of  an  electromagnet.  A  permanent 
magnet  was  swung  between  the  poles  of  this  electromagnet  in 


JOSEPH  HENRY  125 

such  a  way  that,  when  the  current  was  sent  through  the  circuit, 
a  bell  was  rung.  In  this  way  he  demonstrated  that  it  was  pos- 
sible to  send  signals  to  a  distance  of  many  miles  by  means  of 
an  electric  current.  Acting  on  his  avowed  principle  that  when 
the  scientific  investigator  had  shown  a  practical  result  to  be  pos- 
sible, there  would  be  plenty  of  inventors  to  put  the  discovery  to 
practical  uses,  he  himself  never  attempted  to  do  more  than  to 
show  how  the  telegraph  could  be  put  into  operation.  It  was  three 
years  after  this,  in  1835,  when  Professor  Morse  continued  these 
experiments  with  the  view  of  devising  a  practical  telegraph. 
Three  years  later  he  had  perfected  his  alphabet  of  dots  and 
dashes  but  did  not  succeed  in  securing  the  necessary  public 
support  for  the  telegraph  until  1842.  Professor  Henry's  gener- 
osity and  public  spirit  is  strikingly  shown  in  a  letter  which  he 
addressed  to  Professor  Morse  at  this  time.  The  following  are 
the  most  important  passages: 


DEAR  SIR: 

"I  am  pleased  to  learn  that  you  have  again  petitioned  Congress 
in  reference  to  your  telegraph  ;  and  I  most  sincerely  hope  you  will 
succeed  in  convincing  our  representatives  of  the  importance  of 
the  invention.  .  .  .  Science  is  now  fully  ripe  for  this  application, 
and  I  have  not  the  least  doubt,  if  proper  means  be  afforded,  of  the 
perfect  success  of  the  invention.  The  idea  of  transmitting  in- 
telligence to  a  distance  by  means  of  the  electrical  action  has  been 
suggested  by  various  persons,  from  the  time  of  Franklin  to  the 
present  but  until  within  the  last  few  years,  or  since  the  principal 
discoveries  in  electro-magnetism,  all  attempts  to  reduce  it  to  prac- 
tice were  necessarily  unsuccessful.  The  mere  suggestion  however 
of  a  scheme  of  this  kind,  is  a  matter  for  which  little  credit  can  be 
claimed,  since  it  is  one  which  would  naturally  arise  in  the  mind  of 
almost  any  person  familiar  with  the  phenomena  of  electricity: 
but  the  bringing  it  forward  at  the  proper  moment  when  the  de- 
velopments of  science  are  able  to  furnish  the  means  of  certain 
success,  and  the  devising  a  plan  for  carrying  it  into  practical  op- 
eration, are  the  grounds  of  a  just  claim  to  scientific  reputation  as 
well  as  to  public  patronage.  About  the  same  time  with  yourself, 
Professor  Wheatstone  of  London,  and  Dr.  Steinheil  of  Germany, 
proposed  plans  of  the  electro-magnetic  telegraph;  but  these  differ 
as  much  from  yours  as  the  nature  of  the  common  principle  would 


126          LEADING  AMERICAN  MEN  OF  SCIENCE 

well  permit;  and  unless  some  essential  improvements  have  lately 
been  made  in  these  European  plans,  I  should  prefer  the  one  in- 
vented by  yourself. 

"With  my  best  wishes  for  your  success,  I  remain  with  much 
esteem, 

"Yours  truly, 

"JOSEPH  HENRY." 

It  was  two  years  after  the  date  of  this  letter  in  May,  1844,  that 
the  first  telegraphic  message  was  transmitted  from  Washington 
to  Baltimore. 

In  1831  he  made  what  was  probably  the  first  observation  of  a 
magnetic  storm  in  this  country.  This  term  is  applied  to  very 
small  changes  in  the  direction  in  which  a  magnet  points,  and 
in  the  force  which  the  earth  produces  upon  it,  that  occur  from 
time  to  time.  These  disturbances  of  the  magnetic  needle  are 
called  "storms"  because  they  behave  much  like  a  storm  of 
wind  in  moving  the  magnet  about.  On  the  same  evening  in 
which  the  storm  was  first  noticed  a  brilliant  aurora  commenced. 
It  has  since  been  found  that  unusual  displays  of  the  aurora  are 
nearly  always  accompanied  by  magnetic  storms. 

The  next  discovery  of  Henry  was  one  in  which,  although  it 
was  quite  original,  he  was  anticipated  in  publication  by  Faraday. 
This  was  the  production  of  magneto  electricity.  When  it  was 
known  that  electricity  could  make  iron  into  a  magnet  in  the  way 
I  have  described,  the  idea  naturally  occurred  that,  conversely, 
magnets  might  also  produce  electricity.  Efforts  to  produce  elec- 
tricity in  this  way  were  unavailing  until  Henry  showed  that  the 
mere  presence  of  a  magnet  was  not  sufficient,  but  that  the  magnet 
must  move.  Henry's  discovery  may  be  explained  in  the  follow- 
ing way.  Let  us  suppose  a  long  piece  of  wire  wound  round  and 
round  in  a  coil,  like  a  coil  of  rope,  but  without  anything  inside  of 
it.  Then  bring  the  two  ends  of  the  wire  into  contact.  Of 
course  this  alone  would  be  nothing  but  a  commonplace  coil  of 
wire.  Now  take  a  powerful  magnet  and  insert  it  inside  the 
coil.  While  you  are  doing  this  an  electric  current  will  pass 
through  the  coil,  but  the  moment  you  get  the  magnet  inside  and 


JOSEPH  HENRY  127 

stop  the  motion,  the  current  stops  also.  Now  take  the  mag- 
net out  and  the  current  again  flows,  but  in  the  opposite  direc- 
tion. 

Here  we  have  the  principles  on  which  the  modern  dynamo  is 
constructed,  by  which  electric  roads  are  now  run.  Unfortunately 
there  were  very  few  scientific  societies  and  scientific  men  in  this 
country;  and  Henry  himself  had  no  idea  what  an  epoch-making 
discovery  this  was;  so  he  did  not  publish  it  immediately,  but 
went  on  trying  to  perfect  it  before  describing  it  in  print.  While 
he  was  doing  this  he  found  that  Faraday  had  made  the  same 
discovery  in  England,  and  published  it  to  the  admiring  scientific 
world.  It  was  a  remarkable  illustration  of  Henry's  high  charac- 
ter that  he  never  complained  of  not  receiving  the  credit  of  having 
been  another  discoverer,  but  subsequently  spoke  of  "Faraday's 
admirable  discovery"  as  if  it  was  something  with  which  he  had 
nothing  to  do.  C*~V$WA^  tiu  flAM^tr 

Another  discovery  which  Henry  was  the  first  to  publish,  and 
for  which  he  has  entire  credit,  is  that  which  is  known  as  the  self- 
induction  of  an  electric  current.  Under  certain  circumstances 
when  a  long  current  is  suddenly  broken  there  is  a  momentary 
flash  in  the  opposite  direction,  and  the  longer  the  wire  through 
which  the  current  is  passing  the  stronger  is  this  flash.  This  is  the 
cause  of  the  bright  flashes  that  are  so  often  seen  at  night  on  the 
trolley  of  an  electric  car  as  it  is  running  along  the  wire.  The 
trolley  makes  a  slight  jump;  the  current  is  thus  broken,  and  the 
self -induced  current  jumps  across  the  space  with  the  brilliant  flash 
which  we  all  must  have  so  often  noticed. 

Another  of  Henry's  discoveries  and  one  of  a  very  curious  char- 
acter was  that,  when  a  flash  of  electricity  suddenly  passes  through 
a  wire — when  a  Leyden  jar  is  discharged,  for  example — what  takes 
place  is  not  a  single  passage  of  electricity,  but  a  vibrating  of  elec- 
tricity back  and  forth  through  the  wire.  These  vibrations  are  so 
rapid  that  they  all  take  place  in  a  much  smaller  time  than  the 
human  faculties  could  ever  appreciate,  perhaps  the  ten  thousandth 
or  one  hundred  thousandth  of  a  second,  perhaps  I  ought  to  say  the 
fraction  of  a  millionth  of  a  second.  The  question  may  arise  how 


128         LEADING  AMERICAN  MEN  OF  SCIENCE 

is  it  possible  to  determine  invisible  motions  back  and  forth  in  a 
millionth  of  a  second. 

Henry's  method  was  very  simple.  He  passed  the  electric  dis- 
charge through  a  wire  round  a  needle.  This  object  being  of 
highly  tempered  steel  retained  the  magnetism  communicated  to  it 
by  the  current.  Henry  found  that,  when  the  needle  was  examined 
after  the  current  had  flashed  around  it,  its  north  and  south  poles 
were  not  always  at  the  ends  which  should  have  been  produced 
by  the  discharge,  but  were  often  in  the  opposite  direction,  the  north 
pole  being  the  one  that  should  have  been  south.  He  immediately 
saw  what  was  the  cause.  The  electricity  must  have  flashed  first  in 
one  direction  and  then  in  the  opposite  one.  In  perhaps  the  mil- 
lionth of  a  second  it  not  only  destroyed  the  magnetism  which  had 
first  been  produced  by  the  current  but  induced  a  magnetism  of 
the  opposite  kind. 

Henry's  active  and  fertile  mind  was  by  no  means  confined  to 
electricity.  Everything  he  could  find  in  the  heavens  or  on  the 
earth  to  investigate,  he  was  ready  to  actively  take  hold  of.  He 
delighted  in  experimenting  on  the  properties  of  matter,  and  left 
behind  voluminous  notes  of  his  results  in  this  field. 

p 

About  1832  Professor  Henry  was  called  to  the  chair  of  Natural 
Philosophy  in  Princeton  College.  Although  the  duties  of  an  Amer- 
ican college  professor  seldom  allow  much  time  for  original  investi- 
gation, he  soon  resumed  his  electrical  researches,  and  the  first  of  a 
regular  series  was  communicated  to  the  American  Philosophical 
Society  in  1835.  On  February  6  of  that  year  he  continued  the 
subject  of  the  self-induction  of  the  electric  current  with  especial 
reference  to  the  influence  of  a  spiral  conductor  upon  it.  The 
series  of  experiments  on  this  subject  are  very  elaborate,  but  can- 
not be  fully  described  without  going  into  details  too  minute  for 
the  present  sketch. 

Among  the  little  known  works  of  Professor  Henry  during  this 
period  are  his  researches  upon  solar  radiation  and  the  heat  of  the 
solar  spots.  In  connection  with  his  relative,  Professor  Stephen 
Alexander,  he  may  be  said  to  have  commenced  a  branch  of  modern 
solar  physics  which  has  since  grown  to  large  proportions,  by  com- 


JOSEPH  HENRY  129 

paring  the  temperature  of  the  solar  spots  with  that  of  other  parts 
of  the  sun's  disk.  The  first  experiments  were  made  on  January  4, 
1845.  A  verv  *arge  sPot  was  tnen  visible  upon  the  sun,  the  image 
of  which  was  thrown  by  a  four-inch  telescope  upon  a  screen  in  a 
dark  room.  A  thermopile  was  placed  in  such  a  position  that  the 
image  of  the  spot  and  of  the  neighboring  parts  of  the  solar  disk 
could  be  thrown  upon  it  in  quick  succession.  The  result  of  obser- 
vations extending  through  several  days  was  that  decidedly  less 
heat  was  received  from  the  spot  than  from  the  brilliant  part  of  the 
photosphere.  It  is  believed  that  it  was  these  experiments  which 
started  Secchi  on  the  brilliant  investigations  in  solar  physics  which 
he  carried  on  in  subsequent  years. 

In  one  of  his  numerous  communications  presented  to  the  Philo- 
sophical Society  he  appears  as  one  of  the  inventors  of  the  electro- 
chronograph.  On  May  30,  1843,  he  presented  and  read  a  com- 
munication on  a  new  method  of  determining  the  velocity  of 
projectiles.  It  was  in  its  essential  parts  identical  with  that  now 
generally  adopted.  It  consisted,  he  says,  in  applying  the  instan- 
taneous transmission  of  the  electrical  action  to  determine  the  time 
of  the  passage  of  the  ball  between  two  screens  placed  at  a  short  dis- 
tance from  each  other  on  its  path.  For  this  purpose  the  observer 
is  provided  with  a  revolving  cylinder,  moved  by  clockwork  at  the 
rate  of  at  least  ten  turns  in  a  second,  and  of  which  the  convex  sur- 
face is  divided  into  a  hundred  equal  parts,  each  part  therefore 
indicating  in  the  revolution  the  thousandth  part  of  a  second  or  less. 
Close  to  the  surface  of  this  cylinder,  which  revolves  horizontally, 
are  placed  two  galvanometers,  one  at  each  extremity  of  a  diame- 
ter; the  needles  of  these  being  furnished  at  one  end  with  a  pen  for 
making  a  dot  with  printers'  ink  on  the  revolving  surface.  In  the 
appendix  to  the  paper  he  proposes  to  dispense  with  the  galvan- 
ometer and  produce  the  marks  by  direct  electromagnetic  action, 
as  is  now  done  in  the  familiar  astronomical  chronograph. 

It  is  impossible  in  the  course  of  this  short  sketch  to  present  any 
full  account  of  Professor  Henry's  scientific  researches.  Hejyas  a 
born  expprimpntajist^  one  who  knew  how  to  cross-examine  Nature 
as  an  astute  lawyer  would  cross-examine  a  witness  and  thus  bring 


130 


LEADING  AMERICAN  MEN  OF  SCIENCE 


out  her  inmost  secrets.  He  was  one  of  those  men  by  whom  it 
seems  as  if  Nature  loves  to  be  cross-examined.  Whether  his 
questions  pertained  to  the  most  familiar  phenomena  of  every-day 
life  or  the  most  complex  combinations  in  the  laboratory,  they  are 
all  marked  by  the  qualities  of  the  author's  mind,  —  acuteness  in 
research,  a  clear  appreciation  of  the  logic  of  science,  and  an  enthu- 
siasm for  truth  irrespective  of  its  utilitarian  results.  During  the 
period  of  his  residence  at  Princeton,  he  was  a  voluminous  contribu- 
tor to  the  Transactions  of  the  American  Philosophical  Society,  an 
association  already  famous  in  the  history  of  science  by  the  names 
of  Franklin  and  Rittenhouse  to  which  his  own  name  was  now  to 
be  added. 

On  December  3,  1846,  Henry  was  chosen  the  first  Secretary  of 

e  newly  organized  Smithsonian  Institution.  The  work  of  the 
remaining  years  of  his  long  life  is  so  intimately  connected  with  this 
institution  that  the  organization  must  be  described  to  understand 
^  v  the  man.  The  inducement  is  all  the  stronger  to  do  this  because 
there  is  probably  no  foundation  for  the  promotion  of  science  or 
original  research  which  shows  so  many  features  interesting  by 
">  their  mysterious  character  and  by  the  novelty  of  the  idea. 

James  Smithson,  a  private  English  gentleman  of  fortune  and 
scientific  tastes,  and  a  chemist  of  sufficient  note  to  be  elected  a 
'ellow  of  the  Royal  Society,  led  a  comparatively  retired  life,  and 
died  unmarried,  in  1829.  He  does  not  seem  to  have  left  any  near 
relatives  except  a  nephew.  On  opening  his  will  it  was  found  to 
be  short  and  simple.  Except  an  annuity  to  his  servant,  he  left 
the  nephew,  for  his  life,  the  whole  income  from  his  property,  and 
the  property  itself  to  the  nephew's  children  should  he  leave  any. 
In  case  of  the  death  of  the  nephew  without  leaving  a  child  or 
^  children,  the  whole  property  was  bequeathed  "to  the  United  States 
of  America,  to  found  at  Washington,  under  the  name  of  the  Smith- 
sonian Institution,  an  establishment  for  the  increase  and  diffusion 
of  knowledge  among  men" 

Probably  few  men  have  ever  written  a  clause  so  well  fitted  as 
this  to  excite  a  curiosity  which  can  never  be  gratified.  The  views 
and  motives  of  the  writer  in  making  this  provision  are  involved 


JOSEPH  HENRY  131 

in  impenetrable  obscurity.  The  first  idea  to  strike  a  reader  would 
be  that  Smithson  had  some  especially  kind  feeling  toward  either 
the  United  States  or  its  form  of  government.  But  no  evidence  of 
this  has  ever  been  discovered.  He  is  not  known  to  have  had  the 
personal  acquaintance  of  an  American,  and  his  tastes  were  sup- 
posed to  have  been  aristocratic  rather  then  democratic. 

It  would  also  have  been  supposed  that  the  organization  of  an 
institution  which  was  to  carry  his  name  down  to  posterity  would 
have  been  a  subject  of  long  and  careful  thought,  and  of  conversa- 
tion with  friends,  and  would  have  been  prescribed  in  more  definite 
language  than  that  used  in  the  will.  Some  note,  some  appended 
paper  would  certainly  be  found  communicating  his  views.  But 
nothing  of  the  sort  has  ever  come  to  light. 

We  thus  have  the  curious  spectacle  of  a  retired  English  gentle- 
man, probably  unacquainted  with  a  single  American  citizen,  be- 
queathing the  whole  of  his  large  fortune  to  our  Government  to 
found  an  establishment  which  was  described  in  ten  words,  with- 
out a  memorandum  of  any  kind  by  which  his  intentions  could  be 
divined  or  the  recipient  of  the  gift  guided  in  applying  it.  The 
nephew,  named  Hungerford,  died  in  1835.  An  amicable  suit  in 
chancery  was  instituted  by  our  Government,  through  the  Hon. 
Richard  Rush,  as  its  agent,  the  defendant  being  the  Messrs. 
Drummond,  executors  of  Smithson.  Although  there  was  no  con- 
test at  any  point,  the  suit  occupied  three  years.  On  May  pth, 
1838,  the  property  was  adjudged  to  the  United  States,  and  during 
the  next  few  months  disposed  of  by  Mr.  Rush  for  about  £105,000. 
The  money  was  deposited  in  the  Treasury  in  the  following  autumn. 

The  problem  now  presented  to  Congress  was  to  organize  the 
Institution  described  by  Smithson.  The  writer  must  confess  that 
he  does  not  share  the  views  of  those  who  maintain  that  the  intent 
of  Smithson  was  too  clear  and  definite  to  be  mistaken,  and  that 
the  difficulty  which  our  legislators  found  in  deciding  upon  a  plan 
shows  their  lack  of  intellectual  appreciation.  It  is  very  much 
easier  to  see  the  right  solution  of  a  problem  after  it  is  reached  than 
before.  It  ought  to  be  a  subject  of  gratitude  rather  than  criticism 
that  it  took  the  country  eight  years  to  reach  a  solution.  The  plan 


132         LEADING  AMERICAN  MEN  OF  SCIENCE 

at  length  adopted  was  better  than  any  of  those  previously  proposed, 
and  the  form  into  which  the  Institution  grew  was  still  in  advance 
of  the  plan  which  at  length  passed  Congress. 

After  a  seven  years'  discussion  of  all  sorts  of  combinations,  the 
act  under  which  the  Institution  was  at  last  organized  became  a 
law  in  August,  1846.  It  provided  that  the  business  of  the  Institu- 
tion should  be  conducted  by  a  Board  of  Regents,  who  should 
choose  a  suitable  person  as  Secretary  of  the  Institution.  It  also 
provided  for  the  erection  of  a  suitable  building  of  plain  and  durable 
materials  and  structure,  without  unnecessary  ornament,  for  the 
reception  of  objects  of  natural  history,  a  chemical  laboratory,  a 
library  and  gallery  of  art,  and  the  necessary  lecture-rooms.  The 
Secretary  had  charge  of  the  building  and  property  of  the  Institu- 
tion, and  was  also  to  discharge  the  duties  of  librarian  and  keeper 
of  the  museum,  and,  with  the  consent  of  the  Board  of  Regents,  to 
employ  the  necessary  assistants.  All  the  officers  were  removable 
by  the  Board  of  Regents  whenever  in  their  judgment  the  interests 
of  the  Institution  required  them  to  be  changed. 

The  Board  of  Regents  created  by  the  act  immediately  com- 
menced active  operations.  In  December,  1846,  a  committee  of 
the  Board,  consisting  of  Mr.  Robert  Dale  Owen,  Mr.  Henry  N. 
Hilliard,  Professor  A.  D.  Bache,  Mr.  Rufus  Choate,  and  Mr. 
Pennybacker,  made  a  report  on  the  plan  of  organization.  Among 
the  recommendations  of  this  report  the  qualifications  desired  in 
the  Secretary  are  of  interest  to  us.  It  was  pointed  out  as  an  almost 
necessary  condition  that  the  Secretary  should  become  the  chief 
executive  officer  of  the  Institution.  After  some  general  remarks 
respecting  the  qualifications  of  Secretary  the  report  proceeds: 

"Your  committee  think  it  would  be  an  advantage  if  a  compe- 
tent Secretary  could  be  found,  combining  also  the  qualifications 
of  a  professor  of  the  highest  standing  in  some  branch  of  science. 
If  to  these  be  added  efficiency  as  an  executive  officer  and  a  knowl- 
edge of  the  world  we  may  hope  to  see  filling  this  distinguished 
post  a  man  who,  when  brought  into  communication  with  dis- 
tinguished men  and  societies  in  this  and  other  countries,  shall  be 
capable,  as  representative  of  the  Smithsonian  Institution,  to  reflect 
honour  on  the  office,  not  requiring  to  borrow  distinction  from  it. 


JOSEPH  HENRY  133 

"Your  committee  will  not  withhold  their  opinion  that  upon 
the  choice  of  this  single  officer,  more  probably  than  on  any  other 
act  of  the  Board,  will  depend  the  future  good  name  and  success 
and  usefulness  of  the  Smithsonian  Institution." 

Previous  to  the  election  of  Secretary  the  following  resolution, 
from  the  same  comittee,  was  adopted  by  the  Board: 

"Resolved,  That  it  is  essential,  for  the  advancement  of  the 
proper  interests  of  the  trust,  that  the  Secretary  of  the  Smithso- 
nian Institution  be  a  man  possessing  weight  of  character,  and  a 
high  grade  of  talent;  and  that  it  is  further  desirable  that  he  possess 
eminent  scientific  and  general  acquirements;  that  he  be  a  man 
capable  of  advancing  science  and  promoting  letters  by  original 
research  and  effort,  well  qualified  to  act  as  a  respected  channel  of 
communication  between  the  Institution  and  scientific  and  literary 
societies  in  this  and  foreign  countries;  and,  in  a  word,  a  man 
worthy  to  represent  before  the  world  of  science  and  of  letters  the 
Institution  over  which  this  Board  presides." 

Although  couched  in  general  terms  it  may  be  supposed  that 
these  expressions  had  direct  reference  to  the  subject  of  our  notice, 
and  were  meant  to  justify  the  Board  in  selecting  a  scientific  inves- 
tigator of  so  much  eminence  to  take  charge  of  the  establishment. 
Professor  Henry  was  elected  on  December  3,  1846,  and  signified 
his  accceptance  a  few  days  later.  It  was  a  frequent  remark  of  his 
in  after  years  th^|  hp  h^  n^v^r  sought  a  position,  and  had  never 
accepted  one  without  fear  and  trembling.  Of  the  few  positions 
he  ever  accepted  we  might  well  suppose  that  this  was  one  on  which 
he  entered  with  most  hesitation.  Held  in  the  highest  esteem  by 
the  authorities  of  the  college,  his  position  at  Princeton  was  in 
every  respect  most  agreeable.  His  enthusiasm  as  a  teacher  could 
not  fail  to  bring  around  him  an  appreciative  body  of  pupils.  He 
was  not  moved  by  any  merely  worldly  ambition  to  seek  a  larger 
and  more  prominent  field  of  activity.  He  thus  enjoyed  what  is 
almost  the  happiest  lot  of  man,  that  of  living  in  a  community 
suited  to  his  tastes  and  pursuits,  and  of  being  held  in  consideration 
by  all  with  whom  he  came  in  contact.  He  was  now  to  take  a 
position  around  which  had  raged  for  eight  years  a  conflict  of 
opinion  which  might  at  any  time  break  out  anew.  That  all  parties 


134          LEADING  AMERICAN  MEN  OF  SCIENCE 

could  be  satisfied  was  out  of  the  question,  and  his  aversion  to 
engaging  in  anything  which  would  lead  to  controversy  was  so 
great  that  he  would  hardly  have  accepted  had  it  not  been  for  the 
urgent  solicitation  of  Professor  Bache.  The  latter  pointed  out  to 
him  that  the  proper  administration  of  Smithson's  munificent 
bequest  was  at  stake,  and  that  he,  Henry,  was  the  only  man 
available  to  whom  all  parties  could  turn  with  the  assurance  that 
the  Institution  would  be  carried  through  its  difficulties.  This 
was  an  appeal  which  he  could  not  understand;  he  therefore  deter- 
mined at  least  to  make  the  attempt,  and  entered  upon  his  duties 
with  the  assurance  from  the  college  authorities  that,  should  he 
fail,  his  position  at  Princeton  would  always  be  open  to  him,  and 
his  friends  ever  ready  to  welcome  him  back. 

After  two  or  three  years  the  divergent  views  respecting  the  proper 
direction  to  be  given  to  the  activities  of  the  Smithsonian  Institu- 
tion gradually  began  to  aggregate  themselves  into  two  groups, 
and  thus  to  assume  a  partisan  aspect.  Many  of  the  projects  which, 
during  the  eight  years  of  discussion,  had  found  supporters,  were 
entirely  given  up,  such,  for  instance,  as  the  agricultural  college, 
i  great  observatory,  the  instruction  of  women  and  the  establish- 
ment of  a  school  of  science.  But  the  act  of  Congress  provided,  as 
already  stated,  for  a  library,  a  museum,  a  gallery  of  art,  and  courses 
of  lectures.  Henry,  while  yielding  to  the  necessity  imposed  upon 
the  Institution  of  complying  with  the  law  directing  the  establish- 
ment of  these  accessories,  was  in  the  main  opposed  on  principle 
to  their  permanent  support  by  the  Institution.  The  position  he 
took  was  that  as  Smithson  was  a  scientific  investigator,  the  terms 
of  his  endowment  should  be  construed  in  accordance  with  the  in- 
terpretation which  he  himself  would  have  put  upon  his  words. 
The  increase  of  knowledge  would  mean  the  discovery  of  new 
truths  of  any  sort,  especially  the  truths  of  Nature.  The  only  way 
in  which  an  extended  diffusion  of  knowledge  among  men  at  large 
could  be  effected  was  by  publication. 

The  departments  of  exploration,  research,  and  publication  were 
therefore  those  to  which  Henry  was  most  inclined  to  devote  the 
energies  of  the  Institution.  While  he  made  no  factious  opposition 


JOSEPH  HENRY  135 

to  the  collection  of  a  library,  he  did  not  consider  it  as  increasing 
knowledge  or  contributing  to  that  wide  diffusion  of  it  which  Smith- 
son  provided  for.  True,  it  might  indirectly  contribute  to  such 
diffusion  by  giving  authors  the  means  of  preparing  books;  but 
this  assistance  was  of  too  local  and  indirect  a  character  to  justify 
the  appropriation  of  a  large  proportion  of  the  Smithson  funds  to 
it.  Nearly  the  same  objections  applied  to  the  museum.  The 
objects  therein  preserved  were  the  property  of  the  Government,  or 
such  as  were  necessary  to  supplement  the  governmental  collections. 

Perhaps  the  project  on  which  the  Secretary  looked  with  most 
disfavor  was  the  building.  The  system  of  operations  which  he 
would  have  preferred  required  little  more  than  a  modest  suite  of 
office-rooms.  The  expenditure  of  several  hundred  thousand  dol- 
lars on  an  architectural  structure  seemed  to  him  an  appropriation 
of  the  funds  to  which  he  could  give  no  active  encouragement.  In 
later  years  one  of  the  warnings  he  often  gave  to  incipient  institu^ 
tions  of  learning  was  not  to  spend  more  money  in  bricks  and 
mortar, than  was  absolutely  nprpss^rv  for  the  commencement  of 
operations,  and  it  can  hardly  be  doubted  that  his  sentiments  in 
this  direction  had  their  origin  in  his  dissatisfaction  with  the  large 
expenditure  upon  the  Smithsonian  building. 

We  must  not  be  understood  as  saying  that  Henry  antagonized 
all  these  objects,  considered  them  unworthy  of  any  support  from 
the  Smithsonian  fund,  or  had  any  lack  of  appreciation  of  their 
intellectual  value.  His  own  culture  and  mental  activities  had 
been  of  too  varied  a  character  to  admit  of  his  forming  any  narrow 
view  of  the  proper  administration  of  the  establishment.  The 
general  tenor  of  his  views  may  be  summed  up  in  two  practical 
propositions: 

(i)  The  Institution  should  undertake  nothing  which  could  be 
done  by  other  agencies.  A  paper  or  report  which  would  naturally 
find  its  outlet  in  some  other  channel  was  never  to  be  published  by 
the  Institution.  A  research  made  for  a  commercial  object  would 
find  plenty  to  engage  in  it  without  his  encouragement.  It  was  the 
duty  of  the  Government  to  provide  room  for  its  own  collections 
and  to  make  them  accessible  to  investigators,  rather  than  to  draw 


136         LEADING  AMERICAN  MEN  OF  SCIENCE 

upon  the  Smithson  fund  for  this  purpose.  As  a  natural  corol- 
lary of  these  views  the  Institution  should  not  engage  in  competi- 
tion with  other  organizations  in  any  enterprise  whatever. 

(2)  Objects  of  merely  local  benefit,  which  no  one  could  avail 
himself  of  except  by  a  visit  to  Washington,  were  to  be  regarded 
as  of  subsidiary  importance,  as  not  well  fitted  to  carry  out  the  views 
of  Smithson  to  the  wide  extent  he  would  have  desired,  and  as 
y    properly  belonging  to  the  local  authorities. 

Putting  both  these  principles,  the  library,  the  museum,  the  art 
gallery,  the  courses  of  lectures,  and  the  Smithsonian  building 
were  looked  upon  as  things  only  temporarily  undertaken  by  the 
Institution,  to  be  turned  over  to  other  agencies  whenever  such 
could  be  found  ready  to  assume  the  responsibility  of  the  opera- 
tions connected  with  them. 

The  position  taken  by  Professor  Henry  resulted  in  a  contest 
v  of  parties  which  was  for  the  time  being  decisive  of  the  policy  of 
3  the  Institution.    A  considerable  party  in  the  Board  of  Regents  as 
well  as  several  officers  of  the  Institution  were  opposed  to  his  views. 
v  Among  these  was  the  librarian,  a  gentleman  of  much  learning  and 
^•'  good  standing  in  the  literary  world.    He  naturally  wanted  all  the 
<•: I-..;  money  he  could  command  to  increase  the  library,  a  proceeding 
.  to  which  Henry  was  opposed,  holding  that  as  this  was  only  a  local 
-  benefit,  it  should  be  provided  by  Congress.    But  the  librarian  was 
a  man  of  such  influence  that  it  became  evident  to  Henry  that  the 
carrying  out  of  his  own  policy  was  impossible  while  he  was  in 
Suffice.    He,  therefore,  took  the  bold  course  of  removing  him. 

This  brought  up  the  whole  subject  of  the  power  of  the  Secretary 
to  remove  the  officers  and  employees  of  the  Institution.  The 
leader  of  the  minority  was  the  Honorable  Rufus  Choate  of  Boston. 
He  was  an  active  supporter  of  the  library  scheme  and  showed  his 
dissatisfaction  with  the  conclusion  by  resigning  his  position  as 
regent.  This  led  to  the  subject  being  referred  to  a  committee  of 
the  Senate,  which  made  a  unanimous  report  in  favor  of  the  Secre- 
tary and  the  majority  of  the  Board  of  Regents.  In  the  House  of 
Representatives,  of  which  Mr.  Choate  was  a  member,  the  matter 
assumed  a  more  serious  aspect.  Mr.  Choate  read  a  letter  criticiz- 


JOSEPH  HENRY  137 

ing  the  Board  of  Regents  which  was  referred  to  a  select  committee 
of  five,  appointed  to  inquire  and  report  to  the  House  whether  the 
Smithsonian  Institution  had  been  managed  and  its  funds  ex- 
pended in  accordance  with  law,  and  whether  any  additional  legis- 
lation was  necessary.  After  a  careful  examination,  extending 
through  a  period  of  six  weeks,  the  committee  seems  to  have  been 
unable  to  agree  upon  a  report.  Two  reports  were,  in  fact,  made. 
One,  signed  by  Mr.  Upham,  the  chairman,  took  ground  against 
the  power  of  removal  by  the  Secretary  of  the  Institution,  and 
against  the  restriction  of  the  increase  of  the  library  as  contemplated. 
Another  very  elaborate  report,  signed  by  two  members,  sustained 
the  Secretary  and  the  majority  of  the  Board.  The  remaining  two 
members  of  the  committee  signed  neither  report;  nor  did  either 
report  propose  any  action  on  the  part  of  Congress  except  the  pay- 
ment of  the  clerk  of  the  committee.  The  contest  which  had  been 
going  on  for  a  period  of  seventeen  years  thus  ended  in  a  complete 
vindication  of  Professor  Henry  and  the  position  he  had  assumed. 
During  the  remainder  of  his  life  he  had  the  great  satisfaction  of 
feeling  that  he  was  held  in  constantly  increasing  esteem  both  by 
the  Regents  and  the  public. 

In  January,  1865,  an  event  occurred  which  though  an  almost 
irreparable  calamity,  tended  materially  toward  the  appropriation 
of  the  Smithsonian  fund  income  toward  those  objects  which  the 
Secretary  thought  most  proper.  A  considerable  portion  of  the 
upper  story  of  the  main  building,  and  a  part  of  the  lower  story 
were  burned.  The  incipient  art  gallery,  the  chemical  laboratory, 
and  the  lecture-room  were  all  involved  in  the  destruction.  Happily 
the  library  and  the  museum  remained  nearly  intact.  An  oppor- 
tunity thus  offered  itself  to  have  some  of  the  trusts  imposed  upon 
the  fund  undertaken  by  other  agencies.  The  Library  of  Congress 
was  rapidly  growing  into  a  great  national  institution,  so  that  there 
was  no  longer  any  sound  reason  for  collecting  a  separate  Smith- 
sonian library.  An  act  was,  therefore,  passed  by  Congress  provid- 
ing for  the  deposit  of  the  Smithsonian  books  in  the  Library  of 
Congress,  so  that  all  could  be  consulted  together,  and  the  Institu- 
tion at  the  same  time  be  relieved  from  their  care.  The  necessity 


138         LEADING  AMERICAN  MEN  OF  SCIENCE 

for  reconstructing  the  art  gallery  was  obviated  by  the  prospective 
establishment  of  the  Corcoran  Art  Gallery  in  a  neighboring  part 
of  the  city.  The  erection  of  Lincoln  Hall  and  the  establishment 
of  a  course  of  lectures,  sometimes  of  a  high  intellectual  character, 
by  the  Young  Men's  Christian  Association,  did  away  with  the 
necessity  of  reconstructing  the  lecture-room.  The  principal  im- 
mediate drawback  was  that  the  building  had  to  be  reconstructed 
at  the  expense  of  the  Smithsonian  fund,  although  Professor  Henry 
was  not  entirely  satisfied  that  so  large  a  building  was  necessary 
for  the  Institution. 

The  only  serious  burden  which  remained  upon  the  Institution 
was  the  National  Museum;  but  the  expense  of  its  support  was 
now  undertaken  by  the  Government,  and  it  therefore  ceased  to  be 
a  charge  upon  the  Smithsonian  fund  except  in  this  indirect  way 
that  the  building  which  housed  it  had  been  paid  for  out  of  that 
fund.  No  advantage  would  therefore  have  been  gained  by  remov- 
ing the  museum  unless  the  building  was  purchased  by  the  Govern- 
ment. The  Secretary  was,  therefore,  desirous  of  effecting  such  a 
sale,  but  his  views  do  not  appear  to  have  met  with  the  entire  con- 
currence of  the  Board  of  Regents.  The  latter  were  not  unnaturally 
averse  to  seeing  the  Institution  surrender  its  imposing  habitation 
and  the  associations  which  clustered  around  it.  A  very  natural 
compromise  would  have  been  for  the  Government  to  pay  the  Insti- 
tution a  suitable  moderate  rent  for  those  portions  of  the  building 
devoted  to  the  care  of  government  property,  but  it  does  not  appear 
that  this  measure  was  ever  proposed. 

The  position  of  the  Smithsonian  building  in  the  public  grounds 
led  Professor  Henry  to  take  an  active  interest  in  measures  for  the 
improvement  of  the  city.  Among  his  latest  efforts  in  the  direction 
were  those  made  with  the  object  of  having  the  old  canal  which 
bounded  the  Mall  filled  up.  Some  may  still  remember  a  witty 
argument  with  which  he  urged  this  measure  upon  the  Board  of 
Public  Works.  "The  great  inefficiency  of  the  Smithsonian  had 
been  said  by  its  opponents  to  be  illustrated  by  the  fact  that,  al- 
though formed  to  diffuse  knowledge  over  the  whole  world,  it  had 
not  diffused  knowledge  enough  among  the  local  authorities  of  the 


JOSEPH  HENRY  139 

place  where  it  was  situated  to  make  them  see  the  necessity  of 
abating  the  pestilential  nuisance  of  this  obsolete  canal."  The 
work  of  filling  up  was  immediately  commenced  by  the  Board  to 
which  the  argument  was  addressed. 

The  administration  of  the  Smithsonian  Institution  was  so  heavy 
a  task  from  a  business  point  of  view  that  it  was  impossible  for 
Professor  Henry  to  continue  his  personal  scientific  researches. 
His  function  was  now  not  so  much  to  carry  on  investigations  of 
his  own  as  to  encourage  and  support  investigations  by  others. 
One  of  the  most  important  measures  toward  this  end  was  the 
publication  of  original  scientific  works,  which  would  both  promote 
knowledge  and  diffuse  it  among  men.  From  this  point  of  view, 
the  correctness  of  which  no  one  will  contest,  this  was  the  most 
effective  step  by  which  Smithson's  purpose  could  be  carried  out. 
A  medium  of  publication  was  all  the  more  necessary  because  at 
that  time  our  scientific  societies  were  so  poor  that  investigators 
found  great  difficulty  in  securing  the  publication  of  their  works. 
Naturally  such  works,  especially  if  printed  in  proper  style,  are 
quite  expensive.  They  frequently  require  illustrations  and  these 
formerly  cost  a  great  deal  more  than  they  do  now.  Seeing  this 
urgent  want  Professor  Henry  commenced  the  issue  of  the  Smith- 
sonian Contributions  to  Knowledge,  a  series  of  memoirs  going  on 
from  year  to  year,  now  forming  an  important  part  of  every  great 
scientific  library.  In  order  to  make  it  certain  that  only  important 
publications  should  be  published,  every  paper  before  being  ac- 
cepted was  referred  to  a  committee,  to  report  upon  its  originality 
and  scientific  value. 

In  bringing  out  the  spirit  of  Henry's  work,  which  placed  pure 
knowledge  ahead  of  practical  applications,  it  must  not  be  supposed 
that  he  was  indifferent  to  the  latter.  If  he  seemed  to  pay  little 
attention  to  utility  it  was  because  he  well  knew  that  there  would 
be  a  score  of  men  all  ready  to  put  discoveries  to  a  useful  end  for 
every  one  person  who  was  qualified  to  make  them.  But  when  this 
was  not  the  case  he  was  ever  ready  to  promote  the  practical  appli- 
cation of  science.  One  of  his  enterprises  in  this  direction  sowed 
the  seed  from  which  our  present  weather  service  grew.  One  of 


140         LEADING  AMERICAN  MEN  OF  SCIENCE 

the  first  works  of  the  Smithsonian  Institution  was  to  arrange  a 
system  of  meteorological  observations  at  various  points  in  the 
country.  The  commencement  of  work  at  the  institution  chanced 
to  be  coeval  with  the  extensive  application  of  the  electric  telegraph. 
In  1874,  Henry  called  the  attention  of  the  Board  of  Regents  to  the 
facilities  which  lines  of  telegraph  would  afford  for  warning  ob- 
servers to  be  on  the  watch  for  the  approach  of  a  storm.  As  a  part 
of  the  system  of  meteorology,  the  telegraph  was  to  be  employed 
in  the  investigation  of  atmospheric  phenomena.  The  advantage 
to  agriculture  and  commerce  to  be  derived  from  a  knowledge  of 
the  approach  of  a  storm  was  recommended  as  a  subject  deserving 
the  attention  of  the  Government.  About  1850  a  plan  of  mapping 
the  weather  was  instituted.  A  few  now  living  may  remember  the 
large  maps  of  the  country  suspended  in  the  entrance  of  the  Institu- 
tution,  on  which  the  state  of  the  weather  in  different  regions  was 
indicated  by  movable  signs.  This  system  continued  until  1861, 
when  the  breaking  out  of  the  Civil  War  prevented  its  further  con- 
tinuance. 

After  the  close  of  the  war  a  renewal  of  the  system  was  proposed 
and  some  effort  made  for  the  attainment  of  this  object.  But 
with  this,  as  with  every  other  enterprise,  Professor  Henry  would 
never  go  on  with  it  after  anyone  else  was  found  ready  to  take  it  up. 
In  1869  Professor  Abbe  commenced  the  issue  of  regular  weather 
bulletins  from  the  Cincinnati  Observatory,  showing  the  state  of 
the  weather  at  a  number  of  telegraphic  stations,  followed  by  a 
brief  forecast  of  the  weather  which  would  probably  be  experienced 
at  Cincinnati  during  the  next  twenty-four  hours.  About  the 
same  time  provision  was  made  by  Congress  for  a  national  system 
under  the  direction  of  the  Chief  Signal  Officer  of  the  Army.  This 
received  the  cordial  support  of  Professor  Henry,  who  gave  every 
facility  at  the  disposal  of  the  Institution  to  General  Myer  for  the 
completion  of  the  organization,  and,  indeed,  turned  over  the 
whole  practical  part  of  the  subject  to  him. 

Among  the  services  of  Professor  Henry  outside  of  the  field  of 
pure  science  and  of  the  administration  of  the  Smithsonian  Institu- 
tion the  first  place  is  due  to  those  rendered  in  connection  with  the 


JOSEPH  HENRY  141 

Lighthouse  Board.  This  Board  was  organized  by  act  of  Con- 
gress in  1852  to  discharge  all  administrative  duties  relating  to  the 
lighthouse  establishment  on  the  American  coasts.  The  duties  as- 
signed to  Professor  Henry  in  this  connection  included  experiments 
of  all  kinds  pertaining  to  lights  and  signals.  The  illuminating 
power  of  various  oils  was  made  the  subject  of  exact  photometric 
experiments,  and  large  sums  were  thus  saved  to  the  Govern- 
ment by  the  adoption  of  those  illuminators  which  gave  most  light 
in  proportion  to  cost.  The  necessity  of  fog-signals  led  to  what 
are,  for  our  present  purpose,  the  most  important  researches  in 
this  connection,  namely,  his  investigations  into  the  phenomena  of 
sound.  Acoustics  had  always  been  one  of  his  favorite  subjects. 
As  early  as  1856  he  published  a  carefully  prepared  paper  on  the 
acoustics  of  the  public  buildings,  and  he  frequently  criticized  the 
inattention  of  architects  to  this  subject.  His  regular  investiga- 
tions of  sound  in  connection  with  the  Lighthouse  Board  were 
commenced  in  1865.  It  had  long  been  known  that  the  audibility 
of  sounds  at  considerable  distances,  and  especially  at  sea,  varies 
in  a  manner  which  has  seemed  quite  unaccountable.  There  were 
numerous  instances  of  a  sound  not  becoming  audible  until  the 
hearer  was  immediately  in  its  neighborhood,  and  others  of  its 
being  audible  at  extraordinary  distances.  Very  often  a  sound  was 
audible  at  a  great  distance  and  was  lost  as  the  hearer  approached 
its  source.  The  frequency  of  fogs  on  our  eastern  coasts  and  the 
important  part  played  by  sound  signals  in  warning  vessels  of 
danger  rendered  it  necessary  to  investigate  the  whole  theory  of 
the  subject,  and  experiment  upon  it  on  a  large  scale. 

One  of  the  first  conclusions  reached  related  to  the  influence  of 
reflectors  and  of  intervening  obstacles.  That  a  sound  in  the  focus 
of  a  parabolic  reflector  is  thrown  forward  and  intensified  in  the 
manner  of  light  has  long  been  a  well-known  fact.  The  logical 
consequence  of  this  is  that  the  sound  is  cut  off  behind  such  a  reflec- 
tor, so  that  at  short  distances  it  is  many  times  louder  in  front  of 
the  reflector  than  behind  it.  In  the  case  of  light,  which  moves  in 
right  lines,  it  is  well  known  that  such  an  increased  volume  of  light 
thrown  in  one  direction  will  go  on  indefinitely.  But  in  the  case  of 


142          LEADING  AMERICAN  MEN  OF  SCIENCE 

sound  the  law  was  found  to  be  altogether  different — the  farther 
the  observer  went  away  from  the  source,  the  less  the  influence 
of  the  reflector,  and  at  the  distance  of  two  or  three  miles  the  latter 
was  without  effect, — the  sound  being  about  equally  audible  in 
whatever  direction  the  reflector  might  be  turned.  Another  impor- 
tant discovery,  made  the  following  year,  was  that  when  a  sound  was 
moving  against  the  wind  it  might  be  heard  at  an  elevation  when 
it  was  inaudible  near  the  surface  of  the  water. 

The  observations  resulted  in  collecting  an  immense  mass  of 
facts,  including  many  curious  abnormal  phenomena.  Henry  was 
always  extremely  cautious  in  formulating  theories  of  the  subject, 
and  had  no  ambition  of  associating  his  name  with  a  generalization 
which  future  researches  might  disprove.  The  result  of  his  obser- 
vations, however,  was  to  show  that  there  were  none  of  these  curi- 
ous phenomena  which  might  not  be  accounted  for  by  a  species 
of  refraction  arising  from  varying  atmospheric  currents.  The 
possible  effects  of  this  cause  had  been  pointed  out  by  Professor 
Stokes  of  England  in  1857,  and  the  views  of  the  latter  seem  to 
have  been  adopted  by  Henry.  One  of  the  generalizations  is  very 
clearly  explained  on  this  theory:  A  current  of  air  is  more  rapid  at 
a  short  height  above  the  water  than  at  its  immediate  surface.  If  a 
sound-wave  is  moving  with  such  a  current  of  air  its  upper  part  will 
be  carried  forward  more  rapidly  than  its  lower  part;  its  front  will 
thus  be  presented  downward  and  it  will  tend  to  strike  the  water. 
If  moving  in  an  opposite  direction  against  the  wind,  the  greater 
velocity  of  the  latter  above  the  water  will  cause  the  upper  part  of 
the  sound-wave  to  be  retarded.  The  wave  will  thus  be  thrown 
upward,  and  the  course  of  the  sound  will  be  a  curved  line  convex  to 
the  water.  Thus  an  observer  at  the  surface  may  be  in  a  region  of 
comparative  silence,  when  by  ascending  a  few  yards  he  will  reach 
the  region  of  sound  vibration. 

It  was  at  the  lighthouse  station  in  the  month  of  December,  1877, 
that  Professor  Henry  noticed  the  first  sympton  of  the  disorder 
which  terminated  his  life  a  few  months  later.  After  passing 
a  restless  and  uncomfortable  night,  he  arose  in  the  morning, 
finding  his  hand  partially  paralyzed.  A  neighboring  physician 


JOSEPH  HENRY 


143 


being  sent  for  made  a  prognosis  of  a  very  serious  character.  Al- 
though no  prospect  of  recovery  could  be  held  out,  it  was  hoped 
that  the  progress  of  the  disease  would  be  so  slow  that,  with  his 
healthy  constitution,  he  might  still  endure  for  a  considerable  period. 
This  hope,  however,  rapidly  faded,  and  it  soon  became  evident 
that  his  work  was  approaching  its  end,  but  his  intellect  was  not 
for  a  moment  clouded  nor  his  interest  'in  what  was  going  on 
diminished.  Only  a  day  or  two  before  his  death  he  asked  whether 
the  transit  of  Mercury  had  been  successfully  observed  and  the 
appropriation  for  observing  the  total  eclipse  secured.  He  was 
then  gradually  sinking,  and  died  at  noon  on  May  13,  1878. 

We  should  make  a  great  mistake  if  we  measured  Henry's  useful- 
ness simply  by  what  he  ostensibly  did,  much  as  the  latter  would 
have  redounded  to  his  credit.  He  was  one  of  those  men,  now 
becoming  altogether  too  rare,  who  felt  that  his  activities  should 
not  be  bounded  by  the  requirements  of  official  duty,  but  that  one 
should  strive  to  leave  behind  him  something  which  would  make  th 
world  better.  He  appeared  in  Washington  as  a  recognized  leader 
of  science,  whom  those  connected  with  the  Government  coul 
readily  consult  and  by  whose  advice  they  could  profit.  Our  pres- 
ent system  of  government  science  had  then  scarcely  begun.  About 
the  only  institution  of  a  scientific  character  which  the  Govern- 
ment had  established  was  the  Patent  Office,  to  which  was  at- 
tached an  officer  whose  duty  it  was  to  collect  statistics  relating  to 
agriculture.  Out  of  this  little  beginning  grew  the  present  Agri- 
cultural Department. 

A  circumstance  not  to  be  lost  sight  of  is  that  Henry,  in  obedience 
to  one  of  the  great  principles  of  his  life,  voluntarily  relinquished 
to  others  each  field  of  investigation  at  the  very  time  when  he  had 
it  so  far  cultivated  that  it  might  yield  him  fame  and  profit.  It  is 
an  unfortunate  fact  that  the  world,  in  awarding  its  laurels,  is  prone 
to  overlook  the  sometimes  long  list  of  those  whose  labors  have 
rendered  a  result  possible,  and  to  remember  only  the  one  who  gave 
the  finishing  stroke,  or  applied  previously  known  principles  to 
some  useful  result.  There  are  few  investigators  to  whom  the 
criterion  in  question  would  do  less  justice  than  to  the  subject  of 


144          LEADING  AMERICAN  MEN  OF  SCIENCE 

our  notice.  In  his  unselfish  devotion  to  knowledge  he  sowed  that 
others  might  reap,  on  the  broad  humanitarian  ground  that  a 
valuable  harvest  would  be  sure  to  find  a  reaper  while  the  seed  might 
wait  in  vain  for  a  sower.  Had  this  been  done  solely  in  his  individ- 
ual character  we  should  have  looked  upon  his  course  with  admira- 
tion; but  in  bringing  the  principle  into  the  Smithsonian  Institution 
he  avoided  a  danger  and  rendered  a  benefit  for  which  we  cannot 
be  too  grateful.  To  this  principle  is  due  the  fact  that  the  Institu- 

>tion  never  appeared  as  a  competitor,  seeking  an  advantage  for 
itself,  but  always  as  the  active  cooperator  in  every  enterprise  tend- 
ing to  carry  out  the  object  prescribed  by  its  founder. 

So  vast  was  the  field  which  even  with  these  restrictions  Henry 
had  before  him  that  this  readiness  to  abandon  portions  of  it  to 
others  might  seem  very  natural  did  we  not  know  by  experience 
how  apt  the  contrary  view  is  to  prevail.  Besides  his  electric  re- 
searches and  his  establishment  of  a  meteorological  system  his 
field  of  work  took  in  such  subjects  as  the  physical  geography  of 
his  native  state,  terrestrial  magnetism,  capillarity,  molecular 
physics,  observations  of  meteors,  phosphoresence,  solar  physics, 
protection  from  lightning,  observations  of  the  aurora,  the  radia- 
tion of  heat,  the  strength  of  building  materials,  experiments  on  an 
alleged  spontaneous  separation  of  alcohol  and  water,  aeronautics, 
the  ventilation  of  buildings,  the  phenomena  of  sound,  and  various 
other  subjects  hardly  admitting  of  classification. 

One  of  his  interesting  traits  of  character,  and  one  which  power- 
fully tended  to  make  the  Smithsonian  Institution  popular  and  use- 
ful, was  a  certain  rnt^llerhial  phi[^nthropy  which  showed  itself 
in  ceaseless  efforts  to  make  others  enjoy  the  same  wide  views  of 
nature  which  he  himself  did.  He  was  accessible  to  a  fault,  and  ever 
ready  to  persuade  any  honest  propounder  of  a  new  theory  that  he 
was  wrong.  The  only  subject  on  which  the  writer  ever  had  to 
express  to  him  strong  dissent  from  his  views  was  that  of  the  practi- 
cability of  convincing  "universe-makers"  of  their  errors.  They 
always  answered  with  opposing  arguments,  generally  in  a  tone  of 
arrogance  or  querulousness  which  deterred  even  the  modest  Henry 
from  replying  further;  but  in  spite  of  oft-repeated  failure  he  still 


JOSEPH  HENRY  145 

considered  it  a  duty  to  do  what  he  could  toward  imbuing  the  next 
one  of  the  class  who  addressed  him  with  correct  notions  of  scientific 
principles. 

It  is  hardly  necessary  to  say  that  in  Professor  Henry's  mental 
composition  were  included  a  breadth  of  intellect,  clearness^  of 
philosophic^jafiigjit,  and  ,qtrptp^fh  of  judgment,  without  which  he 
could  never  have  carried  out  the  difficult  task  which  his  official 
position  imposed  upon  him.  His  mental  fiber  was  well  seen  in 
the  stand  which  he  took  against  the  delusions  of  spiritualism.  On 
no  subject  was  he  more  decided  than  on  that  of  the  impossibility 
and  absurdity  of  the  pseudo-miracles  of  the  mediums,  who  seemed 
to  him  to  claim  no  less  a  power  than  that  of  overruling  the  laws  of 
nature.  An  intellectual  person  yielding  credence  to  their  preten- 
sions seemed  to  him  to  be  in  great  danger  of  insanity.  An  old  and 
respected  friend,  who  had  held  a  prominent  position  in  the  govern- 
ment service,  in  speaking  to  him  on  the  subject,  once  described 
how  he  had  actually  seen  a  spiritual  medium  rise  in  the  air  and 
waft  himself  out  of  the  window.  "  Judge,"  answered  the  Professor, 
"you  never  saw  that,  and  if  you  think  you  did,  you  are  in  a  danger- 
ous mental  condition.  If  you  do  not  give  this  delusion  up  you 
will  be  in  the  insane  asylum  before  you  know  it.  As  a  loving 
friend  I  beseech  you  to  take  warning  of  what  I  say,  and  to  reflect 
that  what  you  think  you  saw  is  a  mental  delusion  which  requires 
the  most  careful  treatment." 

He  once  related  to  the  writer  a  curious  circumstance  as  an  illus- 
tration of  the  character  of  this  " spiritual"  legerdemain.  A  noted 
spiritualist  had  visited  Washington  during  Mr.  Lincoln's  adminis- 
tration and  held  several  seances  with  the  President  himself.  The 
latter  was  extremely  desirous  that  Professor  Henry  should  see  the 
medium,  and  give  his  opinion  as  to  how  he  performed  his  wonder- 
ful feats.  Although  Henry  generally  avoided  all  contact  with  such 
men,  he  consented  to  receive  him  at  the  Smithsonian  Institution. 
Among  the  acts  proposed  was  that  of  making  sounds  in  various 
quarters  of  the  room.  This  was  something  which  the  keen  senses 
and  ready  experimental  faculty  of  the  Professor  were  well  qualified 
to  investigate.  He  turned  his  head  in  various  positions  while  the 


146          LEADING  AMERICAN  MEN  OF  SCIENCE 

sounds  were  being  emitted.  He  then  turned  toward  the  man  with 
the  utmost  firmness  and  said,  "I  do  not  know  how  you  make  the 
sounds,  but  this  I  perceive  very  clearly:  they  do  not  come  from 
the  room  but  from  your  person."  It  was  in  vain  that  the  operator 
protested  they  did  not,  and  that  he  had  no  knowledge  how  they 
were  produced.  The  keen  ear  of  his  examiner  could  not  be 
deceived. 

Some  time  afterward  Henry  was  traveling  in  the  east,  and  took 
a  seat  in  a  railway  car  beside  a  young  man,  who  finding  who  his 
companion  was,  entered  into  conversation  with  him,  and  informed 
him  that  he  was  a  maker  of  telegraph  instruments.  His  advances 
were  received  in  so  friendly  a  manner  that  he  went  further  yet, 
and  confided  to  the  Professor  that  his  ingenuity  had  been  called 
into  requisition  by  spiritual  mediums,  to  whom  he  furnished  the 
apparatus  necessary  for  the  manifestations.  Henry  asked  him 
by  what  mediums  he  had  been  thus  engaged,  and  was  interested 
to  find  that  among  them  was  the  very  man  he  had  met  at  the 
Smithsonian  Institution.  The  sounds  which  the  medium  had 
emitted  were  then  described  to  the  young  man,  who  in  reply  stated 
that  the  apparatus  had  been  constructed  by  himself,  and  ex- 
plained its  structure  and  working.  It  was  fastened  around  the 
muscular  part  of  the  upper  arm,  and  so  devised  that  the  sounds 
would  be  produced  by  a  simple  action  of  the  muscle,  unaccom- 
panied by  any  motion  of  the  joints  of  the  arm,  and  therefore  en- 
tirely invisible  to  a  bystander. 

On  the  whole  we  must  class  Joseph  Henry  among  those  men 
whose  lives  afford  the  most  interesting  examples- for  the  guidance 
of  youth.  He  who,  at  the  present  day,  has  to  do  with  public  life 
may  well  be  discouraged  by  the  selfishness  of  its  spirit  and  the 
extent  to  which  routine  takes  the  place  of  reason  in  all  its  opera- 
tions. Under  these  circumstances  the  spectacle  of  a  man  ani- 
mated by  the  most  exalted  impulses, .devoting  his  energies  to  the 
promotion  of  good  works  on  the  fy'ffhfst  pj'ane.  and  leaving  after 
"Him  none  but  fragrant  memories,  ought  to  be  a  source  of  encour- 
agement and  inspiration  to  every  young  man  who  is  able  to  follow 
in  his  footsteps. 


LOUIS  AGASSIZ 

ZOOLOGIST 

1807-1873 
BY  CHARLES  FREDERICK  HOLDER 

"I  WISH  to  be  a  good  son,  a  good  citizen,  and  the  first  naturalist 
of  my  time.  I  feel  within  me  the  strength  of  a  whole  generation 
to  work  towards  this  end,  and  I  shall  reach  it,  if  the  means  be  not 
wanting."  So  wrote  young  Agassiz  to  his  father  on  the  threshold 
of  his  career.  He  was  a  good  son,  he  became  a  good  citizen  and 
in  the  opinion  of  many  of  his  peers  he  was  the  first  naturalist  of 
his  time,  ranking  with  Darwin,  Huxley  and  Spencer,  and  if  brevity 
alone  was  desired  the  historian  might  stop  here,  and  let  his  own 
outline  of  principles  stand. 

It  is  a  pleasure  to  have  known  Louis  Agassiz,  to  have  seen  his 
genial  smile,  and  to  remember  his  strong  personality.  The 
writer  lived  at  Lynn,  and  with  the  late  Dr.  J.  B.  Holder  often 
walked  over  to  Nahant  and  visited  Agassiz  in  his  artistic  home  on 
the  rocky  peninsula  which  reaches  out  into  Massachusetts  Bay. 
In  Dr.  Holder's  correspondence  -  covering  nearly  twenty  years' 
acquaintance  with  Agassiz  many  interesting  letters  occur  referring 
to  collecting  tours  and  dredging  in  Massachusetts  Bay,  which 
ended  in  Dr.  Holder  going  to  Tortugas,  Florida,  to  make  an  elab- 
orate study  of  the  Florida  reef,  which  was  carried  on  for  six  or 
seven  years.  During  this  period  the  writer  had,  for  the  pleasure 
it  afforded,  an  active  participation  in  the  collective  part  of  the  plan 
of  the  work;  and  recalls  the  remarkable  interest  of  Agassiz  in  the 
work,  his  long  and  interesting  letters,  his  delight  at  the  many  new 
species  found  and  described.  Even  when  Dr.  Holder's  deductions 
regarding  the  growth  of  corals  were,  to  some  extent  antagonistic 


148  LEADING  AMERICAN  MEN  OF  SCIENCE 

to  his  own,  the  result  was  not  a  tragedy,  as  some  of  the  breaking 
of  fond  theories  appear  to  be.  Agassiz  had  placed  himself  on 
record  as  believing  that  corals  and  coral  reefs  grew  very  slowly. 
Dr.  Holder  proved  the  contrary,  and  with  the  writer  kept  coral 
heads  in  partial  confinement  on  the  reef,  which  doubled  their 
diameter  in  a  year.  Such  a  specimen  is  to  be  seen  in  the  Ameri- 
can Museum  of  Natural  History  and  is  figured  in  the  writer's 
Elements  of  Zoology. 

Agassiz  impressed  me  as  a  strong,  virile  man  of  remarkable 
mold.  Had  he  not  been  a  naturalist,  he  would  have  been  a 
leader  of  men  in  some  other  direction.  As  an  organizer  he  was 
preeminent;  as  a  scientist  profound.  He  was  a  theorist  and  idealist 
yet  his  attitude  was  essentially  scientific;  he  sought  the  truth  and 
worked  along  the  lines  of  logical  investigation,  feeling  his  way  from 
fact  to  fact,  not  jumping  at  conclusions;  and  it  is  this  quality  of 
mind  that  has  given  him  the  position  in  the  scientific  history  of 
the  world  as  its  greatest  teacher  in  the  department  of  zoological 
science. 

It  is  rare  that  an  alien  has  become  so  thoroughly  identified  with 
the  country  of  his  adoption  as  Agassiz.  He  was  born  in  Switzer- 
land May  28,  1807,  in  the  little  village  of  Mottier,  in  the  canton  of 
Vaud,  and  came  from  a  long  line  of  intellectual  men  and  women; 
and  possibly  the  deep  religious  feeling  which  dominated  his  entire 
life  and  to  some  extent  influenced  his  career,  can  be  traced  to 
heredity,  as  his  father  was  the  sixth  clergyman  in  a  direct  line  from 
a  divine  who  came  down  from  a  Burgundian  Huguenot  who  fled 
from  France  to  escape  the  persecutions  which  characterized  the 
reign  of  Louis  XIV. 

While  Agassiz  had  a  life  struggle  to  attain  the  prominence  he 
succeeded  to,  it  can  be  said  that  he  was  a  born  genius  in  the  fields  in 
which  he  later  became  conspicuous.  When  a  youth  he  developed 
a  remarkable  taste  for  nature  study.  He  was  conscientious, 
indefatigable,  studious,  earnest,  and  possessed  of  a  masterly 
power  of  overcoming  obstacles  that  would  have  appeared  insur- 
mountable to  the  average  youth.  An  illustration  of  this  is  to  be 
seen  in  his  attempts  to  become  a  naturalist.  His  father  was  deter- 


LOUIS  AGASSIZ  149 

mined  that  he  should  be  a  business  man  or  a  physician;  the  son 
was  equally  determined  to  follow  the  study  of  his  choice  and  he 
won  by  the  very  greatness,  the  loftiness  of  his  appeals,  and  the 
logic  of  his  well-supported  arguments. 

The  very  element  of  semi-poverty  would  have  discouraged  the 
average  boy  alone,  but  to  Agassiz  it  was  another  reason  for  suc- 
cess, and  in  this  determination,  reinforced  by  lucid  demonstra- 
tions, one  sees  the  explanation  of  his  successes  in  the  various  epochs 
of  his  career  which  led  to  the  lofty  pinnacle  upon  which  he  stood 
when  he  passed  on  into  history. 

Agassiz's  youth  was  spent  in  the  open.  Until  the  age  of  ten  he 
roamed  the  fields  a  devoted  student  of  every  branch  of  nature, 
from  the  song  of  the  birds  to  the  deep  snows  and  glaciers  of  his 
mountains.  During  this  period  he  studied  with  his  parents.  He 
displayed  not  only  a  remarkable  love  for  animals,  but  a  peculiar 
desire  to  know  all  about  them,  their  structure,  and  habits;  and  at 
this  time  we  find  him  an  all  around  investigator,  not  only  studying 
living  fishes  in  a  home-made  aquarium,  but  watching  the  work  of 
mechanics  of  various  kinds  and  copying  their  work.  At  ten  years 
of  age  he  entered  the  University  of  Bienne,  and  at  twelve  had 
a  remarkable  collection  of  animals  and  plants,  committing  the 
Latin  names  to  memory  and  compiling  remarkable  manuscripts; 
in  fact,  tutoring  himself  "in  the  rudiments  of  many  desperate 
studies"  and  methods  which,  doubtless,  had  in  later  years  to  be 
unlearned.  Indeed  he  says,  "I  am  conscious  that  at  successive 
periods  of  my  life  I  have  employed  very  different  systems  of  study." 

When  very  young  Agassiz  began  to  buy  books  relating  to  the 
studies  of  his  choice.  In  the  later  years  of  his  life  at  Bienne,  he 
announced  his  strong  desire  to  become  a  naturalist,  but  his  father 
believing  it  would  mean  a  life  of  comparative  poverty,  determined 
that  he  should  follow  a  business  career,  and  while  Agassiz  was 
secretly  preparing  to  become  the  great  savant,  the  father  was 
laying  plans  for  his  entering  the  firm  of  his  uncle  at  Neuchatel; 
but  Agassiz  succeeded  in  holding  off  the  decision,  and  entered 
the  College  of  Lausanne  where  he  met  many  scientific  men  who  in- 
fluenced his  career.  Here  he  had  first  access  to  collections  of 


150          LEADING  AMERICAN  MEN  OF  SCIENCE 

scientific  value.  Here  in  1823  he  listened  to  his  first  lecture  in 
Zoology. 

Seeing  that  they  could  not  influence  him  his  family  virtually 
surrendered,  or  a  compromise  was  effected  through  Dr.  Mathias 
Mayor,  and  Agassiz  entered  the  medical  school  at  Zurich  which 
he  considered  a  step  in  the  right  direction.  Some  idea  of  the  charm- 
ing personality  of  Agassiz  can  be  formed  from  the  following 
incident.  With  a  few  friends  he  was  on  a  walking  trip  through 
the  country  where  he  met  en  roiite,  a  gentlemen  who  invited  them 
to  join  him  at  lunch,  during  which,  he  was  so  impressed  with  the 
young  student  that  he  later  expressed  a  desire  to  adopt  him,  and 
to  undertake  his  complete  education,  a  consummation  which  would 
have  been  accomplished  had  not  family  ties  between  the  boy  and 
his  parents  been  so  strong.  All  who  met  young  Agassiz  fell  under 
the  potent  charm  of  his  personality  and  it  was  noted  that  his  pro- 
fessors took  exceptional  interest  in  him.  In  this  way  his  acquaint- 
ance was  increased  and  he  was  enabled  to  meet  men  of  impor- 
tance, and  to  borrow  books.  It  is  difficult  for  the  reader  to-day, 
when  every  village  has  its  library,  to  realize  that  young  Agassiz 
had  the  greatest  difficulty  in  obtaining  books.  They  were  rare, 
and  he  did  not  possess  the  money  to  buy  them;  and  that  this  can 
be  thoroughly  appreciated,  it  may  be  said  that  he  spent  days  and 
weeks  copying  books  that  he  had  borrowed,  which  he  could  not 
afford  to  buy,  that  he  might  at  least  own  a  copy,  while  pages  and 
chapters  of  others  were  committed  to  memory.  It  would  be  diffi- 
cult to  imagine  a  modern  boy  copying  two  volumes  of  Lamarck's 
Animaux  sans  Vertebres,  that  he  might  have  the  material  at  hand. 

The  character  of  Agassiz  was  influenced  greatly  by  the  men  he 
associated  with  at  this  time.  This  is  not  strange,  but  it  is  remark- 
able that  he  should  have  sought  the  friendship  of  such  men  and 
preferred  it;  and  that  he  might  reap  the  full  value  of  this  associa- 
tion he  entered  Heidelberg  University  in  1820.  He  now  met 
Leuckart,  Tiedemann  and  Braun,  who  gave  him  every  possible 
aid.  His  life  now  was  that  of  a  student  actuated  by  a  remarkable 
prescience.  The  ordinary  frivolities  of  youth  did  not  enter  into  his 
composition;  not  that  he  was  not  full  of  life,  fond  of  sports,  but 


LOUIS  AGASSIZ  151 

he  seems  to  have  been  gifted  with  that  rare  faculty  in  the  young, 
of  looking  ahead.  He  planned  his  career  and  was  working  up 
to  it  with  a  sagacity  that  was  almost  abnormal.  He  was  confined 
to  his  books  and  lectures,  yet  he  did  not  neglect  outdoor  life  and 
exercise.  He  was  a  skilled  fencer;  few  could  tire  him  in  walks  over 
the  country,  and  to  this  was  due  his  lusty  frame  and  commanding 
figure  and  later  in  life  his  power  to  withstand  fatigue. 

Perhaps  no  feature  of  Agassiz's  life  has  attracted  so  much  atten- 
tion among  laymen  as  his  thoroughly  religious  feeling  and  attitude, 
and  this  never  changed.  He  possessed  it  all  though  life,  and  in 
the  great  intellectual  conflicts  in  which  he  became  engaged  in 
later  years,  his  religious  nature  was  always  a  dominant  factor  to 
be  counted  with.  We  find  this  cropping  out  in  his  student  life. 
His  home  training,  the  influence  of  his  mother,  and  the  traditions 
of  his  family  were  strong  within  him,  and  the  "rare  comet  in  the 
Heidelberg  horizon,"  as  Braun  describes  him  at  this  time,  was  a 
student  with  strong  religious  proclivities  that  could  not  be  over- 
come by  even  the  jokes  of  his  more  or  less  jovial  fellows. 

In  1827  Agassiz  entered  the  University  of  Munich,  one  of  the 
epochs  of  his  career,  accomplished  not  without  a  struggle,  as  his 
family  were  people  of  moderate  means,  and  he  was  sustained  at 
every  step  of  his  career  only  by  the  greatest  effort.  He  writes  at 
this  period: 

"I  cannot  review  my  Munich  life  without  deep  gratitude.  The 
city  teemed  with  resources  for  the  student  in  arts,  letters,  philos- 
ophy, and  science.  It  was  distinguished  at  that  time  for  activity 
in  public  as  well  as  in  academic  life.  The  King  seemed  liberal; 
he  was  the  friend  of  poets  and  artists,  and  aimed  at  concentrating 
all  the  glories  of  Germany  in  his  new  university.  I  thus  enjoyed 
for  a  few  years  the  example  of  the  most  brilliant  intellects,  and 
that  stimulus  which  is  given  by  competition  between  men  equally 
eminent  in  different  spheres  of  human  knowledge.  Under  such 
circumstances  a  man  either  subsides  into  the  position  of  a  fol- 
lower in  the  ranks  that  gather  around  a  master,  or  he  aspires  to 
be  a  master  himself." 

Already  Agassiz's  marked  personality  was  making  itself  felt 
upon  his  compatriots.  The  "Little  Academy"  came  into  being, 


152          LEADING  AMERICAN  MEN  OF  SCIENCE 

a  meeting  of  men  of  congenial  tastes  and  spirit,  where  papers 
were  discussed  and  great  projects  with  all  the  enthusiasm  of  youth, 
proposed. 

Mr.  Dinkel,  who  was  the  artist  of  Agassiz,  in  describing  the 
"Little  Academy"  says  that  the  members  all  had  nicknames,  as 
"Molluscus,"  "Cyprinus,"  and  "Rhubarb."  The  room  was 
small  and  so  filled  with  specimens,  seat  and  floor,  that  visitors 
not  only  had  to  stand  up,  but  sometimes  could  not  move  around, 
while  the  walls  were  covered  with  sketches  of  all  kinds  of  animals, 
and  their  skeletons  and  grinning  skulls,  to  the  possible  terror  of 
the  landlady. 

Here  Agassiz  outlined  the  Brazilian  trip  which  came  later, 
suggested  by  Martius  who  told  of  his  experiences  in  this  lotus  land 
of  the  entomologist. 

That  Agassiz  was  influenced  by  the  strong  personality  of  Von 
Martius  is  evident.  The  latter  was  the  friend  of  the  King  of 
Bavaria;  a  man  of  ripe  scholarship,  who  with  Spix,  had  made  for 
his  majesty  an  important  trip  through  South  America.  Spix 
died,  and  Von  Martius,  to  the  astonishment  and  delight  of  Agassiz, 
gave  him  the  fishes  of  this  great  expedition  to  work  up,  this  being 
in  a  way  a  notable  step  in  his  career.  It  was  the  turning  of  the 
roads  to  Agassiz.  His  parents  hoped  that  he  would  graduate  and 
become  a  practicing  physician,  but  Agassiz  did  not  take  them 
wholly  into  his  confidence  and  tell  them  of  his  association  with 
Von  Martius,  or  the  signal  honor  that  had  fallen  to  him,  as  he 
knew  that  it  would  cause  them  annoyance;  so  he  began  on  the 
great  work  at  night,  pursuing  his  medical  studies  by  day,  deter- 
mining to  use  the  work  as  a  lever  to  induce  his  parents  to  consent 
to  the  scientific  career. 

To  his  father  he  wrote,  "If  during  the  course  of  my  studies  I 
succeed  in  making  myself  known  by  a  work  of  distinction,  will 
you  not  then  consent  that  I  shall  study,  at  least  during  one  year, 
the  natural  sciences  alone,  and  then  accept  a  professorship  in 
Natural  History,  with  the  understanding  that  if  in  the  first  place, 
and  in  the  time  agreed  upon,  I  shall  take  my  Doctor's  degree?  " 
His  father  replied,  "Let  the  sciences  be  the  balloon  in  which  you 


LOUIS  AGASSIZ  153 

prepare  to  travel  through  higher  regions,  but  let  medicines  and 
surgery  be  your  parachutes." 

The  secret  could  not  be  kept,  and  the  spectacle  of  Agassiz  at 
twenty-one  years  of  age  making  a  report  on  the  fishes  of  Brazil 
to  the  Government,  was  so  signal  an  honor  that  it  silenced  all 
opposition.  The  work  gave  him  fame,  and  when  completed,  the 
name  of  Agassiz  appeared  upon  the  title-page  as  a  Doctor  of 
Philosophy,  which  was  soon  followed  by  his  degree  of  M.  D. 

At  twenty-three  Agassiz  was  well-known  in  Europe,  an  author 
and  naturalist  of  national  reputation,  a  position  not  accomplished 
without  great  mental  and  physical  effort;  the  details  of  which  can- 
not be  given  in  a  sketch  so  limited.  It  was  now  that  Agassiz  met 
Cuvier  and  Von  Humboldt,  who  both  recognized  the  inherent 
genius  of  the  young  man  and  aided  him  in  every  way  possible. 
Cuvier  placed  in  his  hands  his  notes  on  fishes,  a  signal  honor. 
Agassiz  was  delighted,  but  as  his  father  had  foreseen,  the  life  of  a 
naturalist  was  not  productive  in  a  pecuniary  sense,  and  in  1832 
he  possessed  an  income  of  but  forty  dollars  a  month,  out  of  which 
he  paid  his  artist  twenty-five,  leaving  him  but  fifteen  dollars  to 
live  upon.  At  this  period,  working  fifteen  hours  a  day,  his  only 
regret  appears  to  have  been  that  he  was  so  poor,  that  he  did. not 
have  a  suitable  coat  to  wear  when  he  presented  letters  of  introduc- 
tion. The  severest  privations  did  not  sway  or  influence  him  from 
his  object  which  was  to  become  the  greatest  teacher  of  science  of 
the  day,  and  he  even  refused  a  salary  of  two  hundred  dollars  per 
annum  from  a  journal,  that  desired  him  to  edit  a  zoological  section, 
on  the  ground  that  he  would  be  obliged  to  give  up  two  hours  a 
day  from  his  studies.  Investigators  in  Psychology  to-day  will 
find  the  following  story  of  Agassiz  of  more  or  less  interest.  He 
was  working  on  a  fish,  which  ultimately  appeared  in  his  Recherches 
sur  les  Poissons  Fossiles.  One  fish  puzzled  him;  he  could  not 
trace  its  characteristics.  One  night  he  dreamed  he  saw  it  worked 
out  in  the  rock;  for  two  nights  he  had  this  dream,  but  in  some 
way,  after  the  fashion  of  dreams,  it  evaded  him  when  he  awoke; 
so  on  the  third  night  he  placed  paper  and  pencil  at  his  bedside. 
Again  he  had  the  dream,  and  seizing  the  pencil  he  drew  the  out- 


154  LEADING  AMERICAN  MEN  OF  SCIENCE 

line  roughly  as  it  appeared.  The  following  day  he  went  to  the 
Jardin  des  Plantes,  and  there  he  cut  away  the  stone  of  a  fossil 
fish,  Cydopima  spinosum  and  found  the  figure  of  his  dream, 
which  is  pictured  in  the  above  mentioned  work,  Vol.  IV,  tab.  i, 
p.  21. 

With  the  death  of  Cuvier  dark  days  fell  upon  Agassiz;  he  be- 
came more  and  more  impoverished,  he  was  forced  to  relinquish 
his  artist  and  then,  owing  to  complications  which  followed,  he  was 
absolutely  forced  to  face  the  possible  abandonment  of  the  career 
he  had  laid  out  for  himself.  He  even  decided  to  return  to  his 
native  town  and  teach,  to  leave  Paris  and  all  its  treasures,  which 
meant  so  much  to  the  student.  But  Agassiz  was  a  man  of  destiny, 
and  in  this  instance  destiny  may  be  translated  to  mean  the  logical 
result  of  true  and  conscientious  effort  in  a  given  direction.  When 
his  fortunes  were  at  the  lowest  ebb,  out  of  a  clear  sky  came  a 
letter  from  Von  Humboldt  inclosing  a  letter  of  credit  for  one  thou- 
sand francs.  This  was  another  stepping-stone  in  his  career,  and 
from  then  on  Humboldt  became  his  friend  and  patron.  Through 
the  author  of  Cosmos  he  secured  a  professorship  at  Neuchatel, 
which  while  small,  eighty  louis  per  annum,  was  guaranteed  for 
three  years.  Baron  Von  Humboldt's  letter  to  the  college  author- 
ities contains  the  following:  "He  (Agassiz)  is  distinguished  by  his 
talents,  by  the  variety  and  substantial  character  of  his  attainments, 
and  by  that  which  has  a  special  value  in  these  troubled  times,  his 
natural  sweetness  of  disposition." 

Von  Humboldt  advanced  Agassiz's  interests  as  rapidly  as  pos- 
sible, and  in  1832  we  find  him  a  national  figure  as  a  professor  deliv- 
ering his  first  lecture  "upon  the  relations  between  the  different 
branches  of  Natural  History  and  the  then  prevailing  tendencies  of 
all  the  sciences."  It  was  at  this  period  that  Leopold  Von  Buch,  the 
famous  geologist,  said  that  he  dreaded  to  knock  at  the  door  of  Ag- 
assiz of  Neuchatel.  "Why,"  asked  a  friend.  "I  fear  that  he  will 
take  me  for  a  new  species,"  was  the  witty  rejoinder,  which  spoke 
volumes  for  Agassiz  at  the  time.  Agassiz,  now  about  twenty-six 
years  of  age,  married  the  sister  of  his  friend,  Cecile  Braun,  and 
honors  came  thick  and  fast  and  recognition  from  scientists  all  over 


LOUIS  AGASSIZ  155 

the  world.  Agassiz  was  an  international  figure  and  as  a  teacher  of 
the  sciences,  he  occupied  a  distinguished  position.  He  now  took 
the  Wollaston  prize  of  seven  hundred  francs,  a  godsend  as  he  had 
expended  his  last  cent  in  producing  a  volume  of  his  splendid  work, 
Researches  Among  the  Fossil  Fishes,  which  was  only  finished  in 
1843,  occupying  ten  years  for  its  completion. 

Agassiz  now  visited  England  and  was  enthusiastically  received, 
meeting  Lyell,  Murchison,  Buckland,  Egerton,  Lord  Coll,  and 
before  these  leaders  of  the  day  he  demonstrated  his  marvelous 
insight  into  the  secrets  of  nature.  At  a  meeting  he  was  asked  to 
give  his  idea  of  a  fish  that  might  belong  to  a  certain  ancient  geolog- 
ical horizon.  He  of  course  had  never  seen  such  a  fish  nor  did  he 
know  that  one  had  been  found  in  this  ancient  stratum,  but  he 
walked  to  the  board  and  made  a  sketch  of  the  fish  as  he  thought 
it  would  appear,  a  rousing  cheer  greeting  his  work.  Then  to  his 
amazement  some  one  pulled  aside  a  screen  and  showed  the  fossil 
specimen.  Agassiz  had  anticipated  and  figured  it  perfectly. 

To  such  an  extent  said  Dr.  Stebbins  "had  this  great  scientist 
advanced  in  a  knowledge  of  the  plan  of  God  in  nature."  Agassiz 
now  became  interested  in  glaciers  and  in  the  following  years  gave 
the  world  his  splendid  works,  opinions  based  on  observation  of 
these  marvelous  phenomena  of  the  Alps,  and  his  work  aroused 
the  greatest  interest  and  discussion  all  over  Europe  and  in  scien- 
tific centers  of  America.  His  views  received  criticism  in  many 
quarters,  but  they  prevailed  and  his  masterly  handling  of  the 
subject  made  him  still  more  famous,  and  in  1838,  when  thirty 
years  of  age,  he  received  the  membership  of  the  Royal  Society  of 
London. 

It  is  impossible  to  even  mention  the  books  and  subjects  which 
Agassiz  had  in  mind,  during  this  and  following  years,  in  the  limited 
space  of  this  paper.  America,  where  he  was  destined  to  rise  to  the 
highest  pinnacle  of  his  career  as  a  great  teacher  of  science,  first 
came  seriously  into  his  mind  in  1842  when  a  trip  was  suggested 
by  the  Prince  of  Canino.  His  books  were  contributions  to  science, 
and  their  production  was  often  a  continual  drain,  keeping  him 
impoverished,  but  when  an  offer  came  from  America  for  a  course 


156         LEADING  AMERICAN  MEN  OF  SCIENCE 

of  lectures,  and  the  King  of  Prussia  gave  him  fifteen  thousand 
francs  for  investigation,  he  decided  to  accept  it,  and  in  1846  he 
arrived  in  Boston  and  began  his  lectures  on  the  "Plan  of  Crea- 
tion." Agassiz  was  now  thirty-nine  years  of  age,  in  his  prime,  and 
he  made  so  strong  an  impression  upon  the  people  of  the  Republic 
that  they  determined  to  keep  him.  American  ideas  appealed  to 
him.  He  was  necessarily  a  lion  and  in  constant  demand,  but 
avoided  publicity,  declining  invitations  when  he  could,  giving  as  a 
reason  that  he  was  in  the  employ  of  the  King  of  Prussia. 

Many  could  not  understand  him,  and  a  servant  said  he  was  a 
"queer  stick"  spending  his  time  at  the  fish  markets,  and  the 
market  men  thought  he  was  "daft"  as  the  fishes  he  preferred  were 
the  ones  the  men  generally  threw  away.  The  course  of  lectures  at 
the  Lowell  Institute  was  so  successful  that  he  began  another  on 
Glaciers.  The  American  idea  was  slowly  but  firmly  taking  posses- 
sion of  his  heart  and  mind.  He  was  captured  by  the  hospitality 
of  the  Americans.  He  says  in  writing  to  a  friend : 

"I  am  constantly  asking  myself  which  is  better,  our  old 
Europe  where  the  man  of  exceptional  gifts  can  give  himself  ab- 
solutely to  study,  opening  thus  a  wide  horizon  for  the  human 
mind,  while  at  his  side  thousands  barely  vegetate  in  degradation 
or  at  least  in  destitution;  or  this  new  world  where  the  institu- 
tions tend  to  keep  all  on  one  level  as  part  of  the  general  mass, — 
but  a  mass,  be  it  said,  which  has  no  noxious  elements,  yes,  the 
mass  here  is  decidedly  good.  All  the  world  lives  well,  is  decently 
clad,  learns  some  things,  is  awake,  is  interested. 

"Instruction  does  not,  as  in  some  parts  of  Germany  for  in- 
stance, furnish  a  man  with  an  intellectual  book  and  then  deny 
him  the  use  of  it.  The  strength  of  America  lies  in  the  prodigious 
number  of  individuals  who  think  and  work  at  the  same  time. 

"It  is  a  severe  test  of  pretentious  mediocrity,  but  I  fear,  it 
may  also  efface  originality." 

To  Milne  Edwards  he  wrote, 

"  Naturalist  as  I  am,  I  cannot  but  put  the  people  first,  the  people 
who  opened  this  part  of  the  American  continent  to  European  civ- 
ilization. What  a  people!  " 

If  the  American  people  made  an  impression  on  Agassiz  he  cer- 


LOUIS  AGASSIZ  157 

tainly  made  one  upon  them.  At  this  time  he  was  a  splendid  type 
of  manhood  of  noble  presence.  Enthusiasm  beamed  in  every 
glance,  he  had  a  benignant  air,  and  was  a  notable  figure,  fascinat- 
ing, magnetic,  yet  simple  with  all,  a  great  leader  along  the  paths 
of  his  choice.  Inducements  were  held  out  to  Agassiz  to  remain  in 
America  and  he  soon  had  many  pupils  and  with  his  determination 
to  remain  began  a  new  epoch  in  American  science. 

In  1848  the  King  of  Prussia  gave  him  an  honorable  discharge 
from  his  services,  and  Agassiz  was  offered  the  chair  of  the  Amos 
Lawrence  Scientific  School  at  Cambridge.  So  at  the  age  of  forty 
he  became  a  professor  at  Harvard  University  and  joined  the 
charmed  intellectual  circle  made  up  of  Longfellow,  Peirce,  Fulton, 
Asa  Gray,  Wyman,  Channing,  Holmes,  Emerson,  Whittier, 
Ticknor,  Motley,  Lowell  and  other  American  immortals. 

Agassiz  now  sent  for  his  family,  and  soon  his  home  was  the 
center  of  scientific  interest.  He  impressed  American  men  of  science 
by  the  thoroughness  of  his  methods,  the  boldness  of  his  theories, 
and  at  once  established  new  methods,  new  lines  of  thought  and 
became  the  greatest  science  teacher  the  world  has  ever  seen.  His 
coming  was  epoch-making  not  only  along  the  line  of  original  in- 
vestigation, but  for  the  dissemination  of  knowledge  among  the 
people.  He  established  new  methods.  He  began  the  Museum  of 
Comparative  Zoology  at  Cambridge,  and  under  his  influence, 
science  took  on  new  interests,  a  fresh  impetus  along  many  lines. 
The  Government  offered  him  every  facility  for  original  investiga- 
tion, and  through  the  Coast  Survey  and  other  sources  he  began  lines 
of  work  which  were  far  reaching,  not  to  say  revolutionary.  He 
made  science  popular  in  America  by  his  lucid  methods  and  the 
charm  of  his  engaging  personality.  New  works  were  continually 
coming  from  his  hand,  as  years  went  on,  and  his  bibliography  as 
published  in  the  writer's  Life  or  in  the  records  of  the  Government 
constitutes  a  monument  of  enduring  fame,  a  stupendous  record  of 
work,  which  in  the  main  was  a  labor  of  love;  the  disinterested 
labor  of  a  lifetime  devoted  to  science.  Agassiz  married  a  second 
time  in  1850,  Elizabeth  Graves  Gary,  a  woman  of  superlative 
gifts  and  many  graces  of  character. 


158         LEADING  AMERICAN  MEN  OF  SCIENCE 

Of  her  Arnold  Guyot  in  his  memoir  of  Agassiz  in  the  National 
Academy  writes:  "  Her  literary  talents,  to  whom  we  owe  the  interest- 
ing account  of  the  Florida  reefs  and  perhaps  the  final  appearance 
of  more  than  one  of  his  later  works,  are  acknowledged  by  all. 
Her  deep  and  absolute  devotion,  her  soothing  influence  secured 
for  him  the  peace  of  mind  and  heart  so  necessary  for  an  undis- 
turbed mental  activity.  To  her  also  science  owes  a  debt  of 
gratitude." 

Agassiz  was  the  same  vigorous  collector  in  America  he  had  been 
in  Europe  and  had  soon  visited  all  sections  of  the  country  from  the 
Lake  Superior  copper  regions,  which  he  explored,  to  southern 
Florida,  and  the  Pacific  coast.  While  on  a  trip  with  the  coast 
survey  vessel  he  visited  Charleston  and  was  there  offered  a  pro- 
fessorship in  the  Medical  College,  it  being  a  more  remunerative 
position  than  the  one  he  held  at  liarvard.  This  he  retained  until 
1853,  ever  hampered  by  the  lack  of  adequate  funds  to  carry  on  his 
elaborate  publications  and  explorations.  He  established  with  his 
wife  a  school  for  young  ladies  in  Boston  in  1855,  which  became 
one  of  the  institutions  of  the  region,  and  was  continued  for  eight 
years,  materially  aiding  his  work  in  the  accumulation  and  knowl- 
edge relating  to  marine  zoology  and  its  dissemination. 

European  nations,  particularly  France,  never  quite  forgave 
Agassiz  for  going  to  America,  and  continually  offered  him  induce- 
ments to  return.  The  French  Emperor  tendered  him  a  position 
that  probably  no  other  living  scientist,  of  France  at  least,  would 
have  refused  and  in  1857  he  was  invited  to  take  the  chair  of  Paleon- 
tology in  the  French  Museum  of  Natural  History,  a  position  which 
had  been  held  by  D'Orbigny,  and  despite  his  continued  refusals 
the  Emperor  conferred  upon  him  the  order  of  the  Legion  of 
Honor.  His  reply  was  characteristic,  he  had  become  imbued  with 
American  sentiments.  "Were  I  offered  absolute  power  for  the 
reorganization  of  the  Jardin  des  Plantes  with  a  revenue  of  fifty 
thousand  francs  I  should  not  accept  it.  I  like  my  independence 
better." 

The  idea  of  a  great  museum  now  filled  his  heart  and  mind,  and 
after  many  years'  work,  needless  trials  and  struggles,  the  Museum 


LOUIS  AGASSIZ  159 

of  Comparative  Zoology  as  it  stands  to-day  was  founded  and 
equipped  on  land  provided  by  Harvard  University  and  the  state, 
an  institution  which  has  grown  and  been  added  to  by  his  distin- 
guished son,  Alexander  Agassiz.  The  museum  was  dedicated  in 
1860,  and  the  present  writer  for  the  pleasure  of  it  made  large  and 
extensive  collections  with  Dr.  J.  B.  Holder,  late  curator  of  Zoology 
of  the  American  Museum  of  Natural  History,  New  York,  on  the 
Florida  reef  for  Agassiz  at  this  time,  forwarding  them  all  during 
the  Civil  War  by  every  passing  vessel,  many  of  which  were  cap- 
tured by  the  various  Confederate  cruisers,  so  failed  to  reach  their 
destination. 

Agassiz's  energy  at  this  time  was  boundless,  and  he  began  a 
series  of  elaborate  volumes,  ten  in  number,  entitled  Contribu- 
tions to  the  Natural  History  of  the  United  States,  the  expenses 
of  which  were  met  by  public  subscription,  and  four  of  those 
monumental  works  were  completed  before  his  death.  The  first 
volume  was  completed  on  his  fiftieth  birthday,  which  was  cele- 
brated by  his  pupils,  who  serenaded  him,  giving  at  midnight  the 
grand  Choral  of  Bach.  The  event  was  also  emphasized  by  the 
Saturday  Club  of  which  he  was  an  honored  member,  at  which 
Longfellow  read  a  poem  entitled  "The  Fiftieth  Birthday  of  Agas- 
siz," Dr.  Holmes  says,  "I  cannot  forget  the  delicate  unusual  way 
in  which  he  read  his  charming  verses": 

It  was  fifty  years  ago, 

In  the  pleasant  month  of  May, 
In  the  beautiful  Pays  de  Vaud, 

A  child  in  its  cradle  lay. 

And  Nature,  the  old  nurse,  took 

The  child  upon  her  knee, 
Saying:  ''Here  is  a  story-book 

Thy  Father  has  written  for  thee." 

"Come  wander  with  me,"  she  said, 
"Into  regions  yet  untrod, 
And  read  what  is  still  unread 
In  the  manuscripts  of  God." 


160         LEADING  AMERICAN  MEN  OF  SCIENCE 

And  he  wandered  away  and  away 

With  Nature,  the  dear  old  nurse, 
Who  sang  to  him  night  and  day 

The  rhymes  of  the  universe. 

And  wherever  the  way  seemed  long, 

Or  his  heart  began  to  fail, 
She  would  sing  a  more  wonderful  song, 

Or  tell  a  more  marvellous  tale. 

So  she  keeps  him  still  a  child, 

And  will  not  let  him  go, 
Though  at  times  his  heart  beats  wild 

For  the  beautiful  Pays  de  Vaud; 

Though  at  times  he  hears  in  his  dreams 

The  Ranz  des  Vaches  of  old, 
And  the  rush  of  mountain  streams, 

From  glaciers  clear  and  cold. 

And  the  mother  at  home  says,  "Hark! 

For  his  voice  I  listen  and  yearn; 
It  is  growing  late  and  dark, 

And  my  boy  does  not  return." 
May  28,  1857. 

The  Saturday  Club  had  a  warm  place  in  the  affections  of 
Agassiz — here  he  met  the  friends  of  his  choice. 
Dr.  Wendell  Holmes  in  referring  to  it  said: 

"At  one  end  of  the  table  sat  Longfellow,  placid,  quiet,  benig- 
nant, soft-voiced,  a  most  agreeable  rather  than  a  brilliant  talker, 
but  a  man  upon  whom  it  was  always  pleasant  to  look,  whose 
silence  was  better  than  many  another  man's  conversation.  At 
the  other  end  sat  Agassiz,  robust,  sanguine,  animated,  full  of  talk, 
boy-like  in  his  laughter.  The  stranger  who  should  have  asked 
who  were  the  men  arranged  along  the  sides  of  the  table  would 
have  heard  in  answer  the  names  of  Hawthorne,  Motley,  Dana, 
Lowell,  Whipple,  Peirce,  the  distinguished  mathematician,  Judge 
Hoar,  eminent  at  the  bar  and  in  the  cabinet,  Dwight  the  lead- 


LOUIS  AGASSIZ  161 

ing  musical  critic  of  Boston  for  a  whole  generation,  Sumner  the 
academic  champion  of  freedom,  Andrew,  '  the  great  war  governor ' 
of  Massachusetts,  Dr.  Howe,  the  philanthropist,  William  Hunt, 
the  painter,  with  others  not  unworthy  of  such  company." 

Among  the  many  experiences  of  Agassiz  was  being  taken  for  a 
harmless  lunatic  by  some  country  men  when  on  a  trip  through 
New  Hampshire.  With  some  friends  he  collected  insects  and 
pinned  them  to  his  hat  and  coat.  Some  one  asked  the  driver  of 
the  coach  who  the  men  were  who  acted  so  strangely,  and  he  re- 
plied, "  Their  keeper  says  they  are  naturals,  and  I  should  say 
they  was."  The  trip  of  Agassiz  to  Brazil  was  one  of  his  great 
explorations,  which  lack  of  space  will  not  permit  reviewing.  He 
followed  this  in  1869  with  a  cruise  on  the  Hassler  to  the  coast  of 
Cuba,  and  during  all  these  years  his  days,  hours  and  moments 
were  filled  with  labors  of  the  most  exhaustive  kind.  In  1871,  he 
made  a  trip  around  the  Horn  to  San  Francisco  in  the  Bibb,  and  in 
1872  we  find  him  again  working  upon  the  plan  for  a  great  marine 
laboratory  and  school  which  finally  took  shape,  due  to  the  gift  of 
John  Anderson  of  New  York,  who  gave  the  island  of  Penikese  for 
the  purpose  and  the  sum  of  fifty  thousand  dollars  for  equipment. 
Many  of  the  leading  naturalists  of  to-day  were  students  of  Agassiz 
here,  and  to  Dr.  David  Starr  Jordan,  President  of  Stanford 
University,  the  writer  is  indebted  to  the  following  memories  of 
days  with  the  greatest  teacher  of  science  the  world  has  ever  pro- 
duced: 

"Penikese  is  a  little  island  containing  about  sixty  acres  of  very 
rocky  ground,  a  pile  of  stones,  with  intervals  of  soil.  It  is  the  last 
and  least  of  the  Elizabeth  Islands,  lying  to  the  south  of  Buzzards 
Bay,  on  the  south  coast  of  Massachusetts.  The  whole  cluster  was 
once  a  great  terminal  moraine  of  rocks  and  rubbish  of  all  sorts, 
brought  down  from  the  mainland  by  some  ancient  glacier,  and 
by  it  dropped  off  into  the  ocean  off  the  heel  of  Cape  Cod.  The 
sea  has  broken  up  the  moraine  into  eight  little  islands  by  wearing 
tide  channels  between  hill  and  hill.  The  names  of  these  islands 
are  recorded  in  the  jingle  which  the  children  of  that  region  learn 
before  they  go  to  school: 


162          LEADING  AMERICAN  MEN  OF  SCIENCE 

Naushon,  Nonamesset, 
Uncatena,  and  Wepecket, 
Nashawena,  Pesquinese, 
Cuttyhunk,  and  Penikese. 

"  And  Penikese,  least  and  smallest  of  them,  lies,  a  little  forgotten 
speck,  out  in  the  ocean,  eighteen  miles  south  of  New  Bedford.  It 
contains  two  hills,  joined  together  by  a  narrow  isthmus,  a  little 
harbor,  a  farm-house,  a  flagstaff,  a  barn,  a  willow  tree,  and  a 
flock  of  sheep.  And  here  Agassiz  founded  his  school.  This  was 
in  the  month  of  June  in  the  year  1873. 

"  From  the  many  hundred  applicants  who  sent  in  their  names  as 
soon  as  the  school  was  made  public  Agassiz  chose  fifty,  thirty 
men  and  twenty  women,  teachers,  students,  and  naturalists  of 
various  grades  from  all  parts  of  the  country.  This  practical  recog- 
nition of  co-education  was  criticized  by  many  of  Agassiz's  friends, 
trained  in  the  monastic  schools  of  New  England,  but  the  results 
soon  justified  the  decision.  These  fifty  teachers  should  be  trained 
as  far  as  he  could  train  them  in  right  methods  of  work.  They 
should  carry  into  his  schools  his  views  of  scientific  teaching.  Then 
each  of  these  schools  would  become  in  its  time  a  center  of  help  to 
others,  until  the  influence  toward  real  work  in  science  should 
spread  throughout  our  educational  system. 

"  None  of  us  will  ever  forget  his  first  sight  of  Agassiz.  We  had 
come  down  from  New  Bedford,  in  a  little  tugboat  in  the  early 
morning  and  Agassiz  met  us  at  the  landing-place  on  the  island.  He 
was  standing  almost  alone  on  the  little  wharf,  and  his  great  face 
beamed  with  pleasure.  For  this  summer  school,  the  thought  of 
his  old  age,  might  be  the  crowning  work  of  his  lifetime.  Who 
could  forsee  what  might  come  from  the  efforts  of  fifty  men  and 
women,  teachers  of  science,  each  striving  to  do  his  work  in  the 
best  possible  way?  His  thoughts  and  hopes  rose  to  expectations 
higher  than  any  of  us  then  understood.  His  tall,  robust  figure, 
broad  shoulders  bending  a  little  under  the  weight  of  years,  his 
large  round  face  lit  up  by  kindly  dark-brown  eyes,  his  cheery 
smile,  the  enthusiastic  tones  of  his  voice,  all  these  entered  into  our 
first  as  well  a£  our  last  impressions  of  Agassiz.  He  greeted  us 


LOUIS  AGASSIZ  163 

with  great  warmth  as  we  landed.  He  looked  into  our  faces  to 
justify  himself  in  making  choice  of  us  among  the  many  whom  he 
might  have  chosen.  Among  the  students  in  the  school  at  Penikese, 
who  come  to  my  mind  as  I  write,  are  Dr.  Charles  O.  Whitman, 
now  of  the  University  of  Chicago;  Dr.  William  K.  Brooks,  of 
Johns  Hopkins;  Dr.  Frank  H.  Snow,  afterwards  Chancellor  of  the 
University  of  Kansas;  Dr.  W.  O.  Crosby,  of  the  Boston  Society 
of  Natural  History,  then  a  boy  from  Colorado  interested  in  rocks 
and  minerals;  Samuel  Garman,  Walter  Faxon,  Walter  Fewkes, 
and  Charles  Sedgwick  Minot,  all  of  them  still  connected  with  the 
work  at  Cambridge;  Ernest  Ingersoll,  then  just  beginning  his 
literary  work;  Professor  J.  G.  Scott,  of  the  Normal  School  at 
Westfield;  Professor  Stowell,  of  the  school  at  Cortland;  Professor 
Apgar,  of  Trenton,  N.  J.;  Professor  Fernald,  of  Maine;  Miss 
Susan  Hallowell,  of  Wellesley  College;  Miss  Mary  Beaman 
(Mrs.  Joralemon);  Mr.  E.  A.  Gastman,  of  Illinois;  and  other 
well-known  instructors.  With  these  was  the  veteran  teacher  of 
botany  at  Mount  Holyoke  Seminary,  Miss  Lydia  W.  Shattuck, 
with  her  pupil  and  associate,  Miss  Susan  Bowen.  Professor  H.  H. 
Straight  and  his  bride,  both  then  teachers  in  the  State  Normal 
School  at  Oswego,  were  also  with  us.  These  four,  whom  all  of  us 
loved  and  respected,  were  the  first  of  our  number  to  be  claimed  by 
death. 

"  Among  our  teachers,  besides  Agassiz,  were  Burt  G.  Wilder, 
Edward  S.  Morse,  Alfred  Mayor,  Frederick  Guyot  and  Count 
Pourtales,  early  associates  of  Agassiz,  already  in  the  fullness  of 
years.  Mrs.  Agassiz  was  present  at  every  lecture,  note-book  in 
hand,  and  her  genial  personality  did  much  to  bind  the  company 
together. 

"  The  old  barn  on  the  island  had  been  hastily  converted  into  a 
dining-hall  and  lecture-room.  A  new  floor  had  been  put  in,  but 
the  doors  and  walls  remained  unchanged,  and  the  swallows' 
nests  were  undisturbed  under  the  eaves.  The  sheep  had  been 
turned  out,  the  horse  stalls  were  changed  to  a  kitchen,  and  on  the 
floor  of  the  barn  instead  of  the  hay-wagon,  were  placed  three  long 
tables.  At  the  head  of  one  of  these  sat  Agassiz.  At  his  right  hand 


164         LEADING  AMERICAN  MEN  OF  SCIENCE 

always  stood  a  movable  blackboard,  for  he  seldom  spoke  without 
a  piece  of  chalk  in  his  hand.  He  would  often  give  us  a  lecture 
while  he  sat  at  the  table,  frequently  about  some  fish  or  other  crea- 
ture, the  remains  of  which  still  lay  beside  our  plates. 

"  Our  second  day  upon  the  island  was  memorable  above  all  the 
others.  Its  striking  incident  has  passed  into  literature  in  the  poem 
of  Whittier,  'The  Prayer  of  Agassiz.' 

"  When  the  morning  meal  was  over,  Agassiz  arose  in  his  place 
and  spoke,  as  only  he  could  speak,  of  his  purpose  of  calling  us 
together.  The  swallows  flew  in  and  out  of  the  building  in  the  soft 
June  air,  for  they  did  not  know  that  it  was  no  longer  a  barn  but  a 
temple.  Some  of  them  almost  grazed  his  shoulder  as  he  spoke 
to  us  of  the  needs  of  the  people  for  better  education.  He  told  us 
how  these  needs  could  be  met,  and  of  the  results  which  might  come 
to  America  from  the  training  and  consecration  of  fifty  teachers. 

"  This  was  to  him  no  ordinary  school,  still  less  an  idle  summer's 
outing,  but  a  mission  work  of  the  greatest  importance.  He  spoke 
with  intense  earnestness,  and  all  his  words  were  filled  with  that 
deep  religious  feeling  so  characteristic  of  all  his  thoughts.  For 
to  Agassiz  each  natural  object  was  a  thought  of  God,  and  trifling 
with  God's  truth  as  expressed  in  Nature  was  the  basest  of  sacrilege. 

"  What  Agassiz  said  that  morning  can  never  be  said  again.  No 
reporter  took  his  language,  and  no  one  could  call  back  the  charm 
of  his  manner  or  the  impressiveness  of  his  zeal  and  faith. 

11  At  the  end  he  said,  'I  would  not  have  any  man  to  pray  for  me 
now/  and  that  he  and  each  of  us  would  utter  his  own  prayer  in 
silence.  What  he  meant  by  this  was  that  no  one  could  pray  in 
his  stead.  No  public  prayer  could  take  the  place  of  the  prayer 
which  each  of  us  would  frame  for  himself.  Whittier  says: 

On  the  isle  of  Penikese, 
Ringed  about  by  sapphire  seas, 
Fanned  by  breezes  salt  and  cool, 
Stood  the  Master  with  his  school. 
******* 
Said  the  Master  to  the  youth: 
"We  have  come  in  search  of  truth, 


LOUIS  AGASSIZ  165 

Trying  with  uncertain  key 

Door  by  door  of  mystery; 

We  are  reaching,  through  His  laws, 

To  the  garment-hem  of  Cause 

Him,  the  endless,  unbegun, 

The  Unnamable,  the  One 

Light  of  all  our  light  the  Source, 

Life  of  life,  and  Force  of  force. 

As  with  fingers  of  the  blind, 

We  are  groping  here  to  find 

What  the  hieroglyphics  mean 

Of  the  Unseen  in  the  seen, 

What  the  thought  which  underlies 

Nature's  masking  and  disguise, 

What  it  is  that  hides  beneath 

Blight  and  bloom  and  birth  and  death. 

By  past  efforts  unavailing, 

Doubt  and  error,  loss  and  failing, 

Of  our  weakness  made  aware, 

On  the  threshold  of  our  task 

Let  us  light  and  guidance  ask, 

Let  us  pause  in  silent  prayer!" 

*        *  .      *        *        *        *        * 

Even  the  careless  heart  was  moved, 

And  the  doubting  gave  assent 

With  a  gesture  reverent, 

To  the  Master  well  beloved. 

As  thin  mists  are  glorified 

By  the  light  they  cannot  hide, 

All  who  gazed  upon  him  saw, 

Through  its  vail  of  tender  awe, 

How  his  face  was  still  uplit 

By  the  old  sweet  look  of  it, 

Hopeful,  trustful,  full  of  cheer, 

And  the  love  that  casts  out  fear. 


"  And  the  summer  went  on  with  its  succession  of  joyous  morn- 
ings, beautiful  days,  and  calm  nights,  with  every  charm  of  sea  and 


1 66          LEADING  AMERICAN  MEN  OF  SCIENCE 

sky,  the  master  with  us  all  day  long,  ever  ready  to  speak  words  of 
help  and  encouragement,  ever  ready  to  give  us  from  his  own  stock 
of  learning.  The  boundless  enthusiasm  which  surrounded  him 
like  an  atmosphere,  and  which  sometimes  gave  the  appearance  of 
great  achievement  to  the  commonest  things,  was  never  lacking. 

"  Essentially  Latin  in  his  nature,  he  was  always  picturesque  in 
his  words  and  his  work.  He  delighted  in  the  love  and  approbation 
of  his  students  and  his  friends,  and  the  influence  of  his  personality 
sometimes  gave  his  opinions  weight  beyond  the  value  of  the  inves- 
tigations on  which  they  were  based.  With  no  other  investigator 
have  the  work  and  the  man  been  so  identified  as  with  Agassiz.  No 
other  of  the  great  workers  has  been  equally  great  as  a  teacher. 
His  greatest  work  in  science  was  his  influence  on  other  men. 

"  In  an  old  note-book  of  those  days  "  continues  Doctor  Jordan, 
"  I  find  fragments  of  some  of  his  talks  to  teachers  at  Penikese. 
From  this  note-book  I  take  some  paragraphs,  just  as  I  find  them 
written  there: 

" '  Never  try  to  teach  what  you  do  not  know  yourself  and  know 
well.  If  your  school  board  insist  on  your  teaching  anything  and 
everything,  decline  firmly  to  do  it.  It  is  an  imposition  alike  on 
pupils  and  teacher  to  teach  that  which  he  does  not  know.  Those 
teachers  who  are  strong  enough  should  squarely  refuse  to  do  such 
work.  This  much  needed  reform  is  already  beginning  in  our 
colleges,  and  I  hope  it  will  continue.  It  is  a  relic  of  mediaeval 
times,  this  idea  of  professing  everything.  When  teachers  begin 
to  decline  work  which  they  cannot  do  well,  improvements  begin  to 
come  in.  If  one  will  be  a  successful  teacher,  he  must  firmly  re- 
fuse work  which  he  cannot  do  successfully.' 

"  'It  is  a  false  idea  to  suppose  that  everybody  is  competent  to 
learn  or  to  teach  everything.  Would  our  great  artists  have  suc- 
ceeded equally  well  in  Greek  or  Calculus?  A  smattering  of  every- 
thing is  worth  little.  It  is  a  fallacy  to  suppose  that  an  encyclopedic 
knowledge  is  desirable.  The  mind  is  made  strong  not  through 
much  learning,  but  by  the  thorough  possession  of  something.' 

"  'Lay  aside  all  conceit.  Learn  to  read  the  book  of  nature  for 
yourself.  Those  who  have  succeeded  best  have  followed  for  years 
some  slim  thread  which  has  once  in  a  while  broadened  out  and 
disclosed  some  treasure  worth  a  life-long  search.' 

"  'A  man  cannot  be  Professor  of  Zoology  on  one  day  and  of 


LOUIS  AGASSIZ  167 

chemistry  on  the  next,  and  do  good  work  in  both.  As  in  a  concert, 
all  are  musicians  one  plays  one  instrument,  and  one  another,  but 
none  all  in  perfection.' 

"  'You  cannot  do  without  one  specialty.  You  must  have  some 
base  line  to  measure  the  work,  and  attainments  of  others.  For 
a  general  view  of  the  subject,  study  the  history  of  the  sciences. 
Broad  knowledge  of  all  Nature  has  been  the  possession  of  no 
naturalist  except  Humboldt,  and  general  relations  constituted  his 
specialty.' 

"  'Select  such  subjects  that  your  pupils  cannot  walk  without  see- 
ing them.  Train  your  pupils  to  be  observers,  and  have  them 
provided  with  the  specimens  about  which  you  speak.  If  you  can 
find  nothing  better,  take  a  house  fly  or  cricket,  and  let  each  one 
hold  a  specimen  and  examine  it  as  you  talk.' 

"  'In  1847  I  gave  an  address  at  Newton,  Mass.,  before  a  Teach- 
ers' Institute  conducted  by  Horace  Mann.  My  subject  was 
grasshoppers.  I  passed  around  a  large  jar  of  these  insects,  and 
made  every  teacher  take  one  and  hold  it  while  I  was  speaking. 
If  any  one  dropped  the  insect,  I  stopped  until  he  picked  it  up. 
This  was  at  that  time  a  great  innovation,  and  excited  much 
laughter  and  derision.  There  can  be  no  true  progress  in  the 
teaching  of  natural  science  until  such  methods  become  general.' 

"  'There  is  no  part  of  the  country  where  in  the  summer  you  can- 
not get  a  sufficient  supply  of  the  best  specimens.  Teach  your 
children  to  bring  them  in  themselves.  Take  your  text  from  the 
brooks,  not  from  the  booksellers.  It  is  better  to  have  a  few  forms 
well  known,  than  to  teach  a  little  about  many  hundred  species. 
Better  a  dozen  specimens  thoroughly  studied  as  the  result  of  the 
first  year's  work,  than  to  have  two  thousand  dollars  worth  of  shells 
and  corals  bought  from  a  curiosity  shop.  The  dozen  animals  would 
be  your  own.' 

"  'You  1  will  find  the  same  elements  of  instruction  all  about  you 
wherever  you  may  be  teaching.  You  can  take  your  classes  out 
and  give  them  the  same  lessons,  and  lead  them  up  to  the  same 
subjects  you  are  yourselves  studying  here.  And  this  method  of 
teaching  children  is  so  natural,  so  suggestive,  so  true.  That  is 
the  charm  of  teaching  from  Nature  herself.  No  one  can  warp 
her  to  suit  his  own  views.  She  brings  us  back  to  absolute  truth 
as  often  as  we  wander.' 

"  'The  study  of  Nature  is  an  intercourse  with  the  highest  mind. 

1  In  this  paragraph,  quoted  by  Mrs.  Agassiz  (Life  and  Letters  of  Agassiz, 
p.  775)  I  have  adopted  the  wording  as  given  by  her. 


1 68          LEADING  AMERICAN  MEN  OF  SCIENCE 

You  should  never  trifle  with  Nature.  At  the  lowest  her  works 
are  the  works  of  the  highest  powers,  the  highest  something  in 
whatever  way  we  may  look  at  it.' 

"  'A  laboratory  of  Natural  History  is  a  sanctuary  where  nothing 
profane  should  be  tolerated.  I  feel  less  agony  at  improprieties 
in  churches  than  in  a  scientific  laboratory.' 

"  'In  Europe  I  have  been  accused  of  taking  my  scientific  ideas 
from  the  church.  In  America  I  have  been  called  a  heretic  because 
I  will  not  let  my  church-going  friends  pat  me  on  the  head.' 

"  Of  all  these  lectures  the  most  valuable  and  the  most  charming 
were  those  on  the  glaciers.  In  these  the  master  spoke,  and  every 
rock  on  our  island  was  a  mute  witness  to  the  truth  of  his  words. 

"  He  often  talked  to  us  of  the  Darwinian  theory,  to  which  in  all 
its  forms  he  was  most  earnestly  opposed.  Agassiz  was  essentially 
an  idealist.  All  of  his  investigations  were  to  him  not  studies  of 
animals  or  plants  as  such,  but  of  the  divine  plans  of  which  their 
structures  are  the  expression.  'That  earthly  form  was  the  cover 
of  spirit  was  to  him  a  truth  at  once  fundamental  and  self-evident.' 
The  work  of  the  student  was  to  search  out  the  thoughts  of  God, 
and  as  well  as  may  be  to  think  them  over  again.  To  Agassiz 
these  divine  thoughts  were  especially  embodied  in  the  relations 
of  animals  to  each  other.  The  species  was  the  thought-mind  at 
the  moment  of  the  creation  of  the  first  one  of  the  series  which  repre- 
sents the  species.  The  marvel  of  the  affinity  of  structure,  of  unity 
of  plan  in  creatures  widely  diverse  in  habits  and  outward  appear- 
ances, was  to  him  a  result  of  the  association  of  ideas  in  the  divine 
mind,  an  illustration  of  divine  many-sidedness.  To  Darwin  these 
same  relations  would  illustrate  the  force  of  heredity  acting  under 
diverse  conditions  of  environment. 

"  Agassiz  had  no  sympathy  with  the  prejudices  worked  upon  by 
weak  and  foolish  men  in  opposition  to  Darwinism.  He  believed 
in  the  absolute  freedom  of  science;  that  no  power  on  earth  can  give 
answers  beforehand  to  the  questions  which  men  of  science  en- 
deavor to  solve.  Of  this  I  can  give  no  better  evidence  than  the 
fact  that  every  one  of  the  men  specially  trained  by  him  has  joined 
the  ranks  of  the  evolutionists.  He  would  teach  them  to  think  for 
themselves,  not  to  think  as  he  did." 


LOUIS  AGASSIZ  169 

No  one  can  contemplate  the  character  of  Agassiz,  without 
realizing  its  nobility,  its  strength,  its  sweetness  and  his  joyous 
nature.  He  was  notably  a  Christian  in"all  the  term  implies.  He 
held  to  trTe"'5elief  in  an  aU-2dse-£lreator.  He  was  the  great  theistic 
philosopher  of  his  ^fay  f\pd  fJTC_  Nature  was  to  him  so  much* 
evidence  of  an  enduring  mind,  a  divine  intelligence. 

In  his  essay  on  classification  he  says:  "All  the  facts  proclaim 
aloud  the  one  God  whom  we  know,  adore,  and  love,  and  Natural 
History  must  in  good  time  become  the  analysis  of  the  thoughts 
of  the  creator  of  the  Universe  as  manifested  in  the  animal  and 
vegetable  kingdoms." 

Holding  such  views  it  is  not  surprising  that  Agassiz  opposed 
Darwin  and  it  may  be  said  that  he  led  the  anti-Darwin  forces;  a 
controversy  which  was  waged  all  over  the  civilized  world,  at  one 
time.  Agassiz  held  out  to  the  last,  but  it  is  interesting  to  note 
that  his  pupils,  I  believe  with  few,  if  any  exception,  went  over  to 
the  forces  of  evolution,  as  understood  at  the  time.  The  views  of 
Agassiz  did  not  mitigate  against  him  as  a  scientist.  The  question 
of  a  divinity  or  no  divinity,  is  beyond  the  pale  of  science,  is  not  a 
scientific  question,  is  not  susceptible  to  argument  from  the  stand- 
point of  science,  and  the  influence  of  Agassiz,  as  a  great  teacher, 
as  a  dominant  educational  force  and  factor  stood,  stands  to-day 
unimpaired.  His  appearance  in  America  was  the  beginning  of  a 
new  era,  was  a  scientific  renaissance  and  his  beneficent  influence 
radiated  around  the  world  like  the  ripples  from  a  pebble  dropped 
upon  the  serene  and  glass-like  surface  of  a  pool.  In  1873,  Agassiz, 
the  colossus  of  workers,  Agassiz  who  had  been  warned  years 
before  by  Von  Humboldt  that  the  intense  work  he  was  doing 
" kills,"  began  to  break  down. 

"I  want  rest,"  he  said,  "I  am  ready  to  go;  I  am  tired;  but  I 
will  work  while  I  live,  while  I  have  strength  I  will  labor,"  and 
here  was  the  secret  of  his  success,  of  all  success,  in  life.  And  so 
he  passed  on;  a  good  and  faithful  servant  who  found  eternal  rest 
on  December  14,  1873.  No  man  has  a  greater  or  more  endur- 
ing monument  than  he.  His  influence,  his  works  rise,  a  pillar 
of  Hercules  that  will  stand  potent ;  virile  so  long  as  time  lasts. 


AV  ^^^vw>v/vs. 


JEFFRIES  WYMAN 

ANATOMIST 

1814-1874 
BY  BURT  G.  WILDER 

AMONG  those  in  whose  honor  this  series  has  been  prepared 
probably  no  one  is  less  generally  known  than  Jeffries  Wyman.  He 
never  published  a  book,  rarely  a  magazine  article  or  newpaper 
communication.  He  seldom  spoke  in  public  or  upon  other  than 
strictly  scientific  topics.  He  never  claimed  credit  or  took  part  in 
a  controversy.  Yet  for  nearly  half  a  century  he  was  devoted  to 
the  increase  and  diffusion  of  knowledge.  His  discoveries  were 
numerous  and  important,  some  almost  startling.  He  aided  the 
determination  of  momentous  issues.  His  writings  were  models 
of  clearness  and  conciseness.  His  teaching  was  admirable  and 
highly  appreciated.  His  museum  was  unique.  In  his  special 
branches  his  authority  was  recognized  the  world  over.  Confidence 
in  him  was  absolute;  and  rarely  has  any  man  gained  from  friends 
and  pupils  an  affection  so  deep,  sincere  and  enduring.  At  his 
death  the  governing  body  of  the  institution  with  which,  as  pupil 
or  officer,  he  had  been  connected  for  three-fourths  of  his  life, 
voiced  the  sentiments  of  all  who  knew  him  in  terms  appropriately 
simple  and  direct: 

"The  President  and  Fellows  of  Harvard  University  recall  with 
affectionate  respect  and  admiration  the  sagacity,  patience  and 
rectitude  which  characterized  all  his  scientific  work ;  his  clearness, 
accuracy  and  conciseness  as  a  writer  and  teacher;  and  the  industry 
and  zeal  with  which  he  labored  upon  the  two  admirable  collec- 
tions which  remain  as  monuments  of  his  rare  knowledge,  method 
and  skill.  They  commend  to  the  young  men  of  the  University 

171 


172  LEADING  AMERICAN  MEN  OF  SCIENCE 

this  signal  example  of  a  character  modest,  tranquil,  dignified  and 
independent,  and  of  a  life  simple,  contented  and  honored." 

The  father  of  Jeffries  Wyman  was  Dr.  Rufus  Wyman,  born  in 
Woburn,  Mass.,  and  graduated  at  Harvard  in  1799;  he  studied 
medicine  under  Dr.  John  Jeffries  of  Boston,  and  during  the 
latter  part  of  his  life  was  physician  to  the  McLean  Asylum  for  the 
Insane;  in  this,  the  earliest  institution  of  the  kind  in  New  England, 
Dr.  Wyman  had  the  wisdom,  the  courage  and  the  power  to  intro- 
duce radical  improvements  in  the  care  and  treatment  of  mental 
defectives.  His  wife  was  Ann,  daughter  of  James  Morrill,  a 
Boston  merchant;  this  family  name  was  continued  in  the  baptis- 
mal name  of  the  second  son,  Dr.  Morrill  Wyman,  of  Cambridge, 
who  was  held  in  the  highest  honor  and  affection  until  his  death, 
January  3oth,  1903. l 

1  For  the  family  history,  for  the  earlier  life  of  Professor  Wyman,  for  various 
information,  and  for  a  revision  of  the  completed  manuscript  I  am  indebted  to 
Professor  Wyman's  daughters,  Miss  Susan  and  Miss  Mary  Morrill  Wyman; 
to  the  only  son,  who  inherited  his  father's  name  and  has  transmitted  it  to  his 
son;  and  to  Dr.  Henry  P.  Walcott,  a  connection  of  Professor  Wyman  by  mar- 
riage. Aid  has  been  received  also  from  Mr.  Glover  Morrill  Allen,  a  relative  of 
Professor  Wyman;  from  President  Charles  W.  Eliot;  from  Professors  Thomas 
D wight  and  James  C.  White  of  the  Harvard  Medical  School;  from  Dr. 
Francis  H.  Brown  and  other  pupils  of  Professor  Wyman;  and  from  Mr.  Allen 
Danforth,  Comptroller  of  Harvard  University.  A  friend  and  former  teacher 
discovered  in  the  Boston  papers  of  the  period  announcements  and  notices  of 
Wyman's  Lowell  Institute  lectures  and  abstracts  of  some  communications  to 
the  Natural  History  Society,  presumably  sent  by  its  secretary.  There  have 
been  consulted  the  memoirs  or  articles  by  Asa  Gray  (Address  at  the  Memorial 
Meeting  of  the  Boston  Society  of  Natural  History,  October  yth,  1874,  re- 
printed from  the  Proceedings,  vol.  17,  pp.  96-124;  also  his  Remarks,  as  Cura- 
tor, pro  tempore,  of  the  Peabody  Museum  of  American  Archaeology  and  Eth- 
nology, in  the  Eighth  Annual  Report,  presented  April  8th,  1875  (Reports, 
vol.  i,  pp.  7-11,  with  portrait);  by  Oliver  Wendell  Holmes  (Boston  Daily 
Advertiser,  September  i2th,  1874,  and,  at  greater  length,  under  the  title, 
"A  Memorial  Outline,"  the  Atlantic  Monthly,  November,  1874,  pp.  611- 
623);  by  S.  Weir  Mitchell  (under  the  title,  "The  Scientific  Life,"  Lippincott's 
Magazine,  March,  1875,  pp.  352-356);  by  Alpheus  S.  Packard  (reprinted 
from  Biographical  Memoirs  of  the  National  Academy  of  Sciences,  vol.  2, 
1886,  pp.  77-126);  it  was  read  April  iSth,  1878,  and  contains  a  Bibliography 


JEFFRIES  WYMAN  173 

Jeffries  was  the  third  son  and  was  named  for  his  father's  medi- 
cal preceptor.  He  was  born  at  Chelmsford,  near  Lowell,  Mass., 
August  n,  1814.  His  early  education  was  received  at  a  school 
in  Charlestown,  kept  by  Horatio  Gates.  Of  this  period,  while 
he  was  between  seven  and  ten  years  old,  there  is  preserved  a  record 
consisting  of  weekly  entries  in  a  little  book  dated  from  October 
2oth,  1821,  to  March  27th,  1824.  The  first  entry  is  "Studies  very 
well";  the  last,  "Is  a  good  boy."  Between  are  "A  fine  little  fel- 
low"; "at  the  head  of  his  class,"  etc.  Later  he  attended  the 
Academy  at  Chelmsford  and  prepared  for  college  under  Dr. 
Benjamin  Abbott.  He  entered  Harvard  in  1829,  the  first  year  of 
the  presidency  of  Josiah  Quincy,  and  was  graduated  in  due  course; 
of  the  fifty- three  members  of  the  class  of  1833  six,  including 
Wyman,  became  professors  in  their  alma  mater. 

In  the  spring  of  his  senior  year,  Wyman  had  a  dangerous  attack 
of  pneumonia  which,  says  Dr.  Holmes,  "seems  to  have  laid  the 
foundation  of  the  pulmonary  affection  that  kept  him  an  invalid 
and  ended  by  causing  his  death."  To  recover  from  the  effects 
of  this  attack  he  passed  the  following  winter  in  Georgia  and  South 
Carolina.  This  flight  southward  at  the  approach  of  winter  was 
the  precursor  of  many  others  by  which  his  life  was  undoubtedly 
prolonged. 

His  interest  in  natural  objects  was  early  manifested.  When  less 
than  ten  years  old  he  spent  his  holidays  largely  along  the  banks 

of  Wyman's  writings  which,  although  marred  by  errors  and  omissions,  was 
reproduced  in  the  volume,  Animal  Mechanics,  (articles  by  Sir  Charles 
Bell  and  Jeffries  Wyman,  edited,  with  portrait,  by  Morrill  Wyman  in  1902); 
by  Frederick  W.  Putnam  (Report  of  the  Council  [on  Deceased  Members]  in 
Proceedings  of  the  American  Academy  of  Arts  and  Sciences,  n.  s.,  vol.  10, 
l875>  PP-  496-505,  including  a  Bibliography).  Wyman's  relations  with  the 
Lowell  Institute,  as  Curator  and  Lecturer,  are  stated,  with  a  portrait,  in  the 
History  of  the  Lowell  Institute,  by  Miss  Harriette  Knight  Smith,  1898, 
p.  18.  From  September,  1859,  to  Juty>  l862»  I  was  a  pupil  of  Professor 
Wyman,  and  acted  as  his  unofficial  assistant  during  the  latter  half  of  the 
period;  my  recollections  are  very  distinct;  of  the  third  year  I  have  a  Diary, 
and  I  have  preserved  all  his  letters,  more  than  thirty  in  number.  My  previous 
tributes  were  published  in  Old  and  New,  November,  1874,  pp.  533-544,  and 
in  the  Popular  Science  Monthly,  January,  1875,  pp.  355-360,  with  a  portrait. 


174         LEADING  AMERICAN  MEN  OF  SCIENCE 

of  rivers  and  creeks,  and  nearly  always  returned  with  some  speci- 
men, living  or  dead.  In  college  the  same  preference  continued, 
and  he  made  many  dissections,  especially  one  of  a  mammoth 
bullfrog,  once  an  inhabitant  of  Fresh  Pond,  which  was  an  object 
of  great  interest  to  his  classmates.1 

Early,  too,  were  displayed  the  taste  and  talent  for  drawing  that 
proved  so  helpful  in  later  years.  With  little  instruction,  he  copied 
Hogarth's  picture  of  the  politician  who  was  so  absorbed  in  his 
paper  that  his  hat  caught  fire  from  the  candle.  When  ten  or 
twelve  years  old  he  executed  upon  a  panel,  with  house-paints,  a 
portrait  of  himself;  the  likeness  was  recognizable,  but  the  tints 
were  imperfect,  the  hair  being  colored  green ! 

While  at  the  Phillips  Exeter  Academy  the  impression  made  by 
young  Wyman  upon  his  fellow-pupils  is  recorded  in  a  letter  to  Dr. 
Holmes  from  his  classmate,  Professor  Bowen: 

"He  was  pure-minded,  frank,  playful,  happy,  careless,  not 
studious,  at  least  in  his  school-books,  but  not  mischievous.  He 
would  take  long  rambles  in  the  woods  and  go  a-fishing,  and  draw 
funny  outline  sketches  in  his  school-books,  and  whittle  out  gim- 
cracks  with  his  pen-knife,  and  pitch  stones  or  a  ball  farther  and 
higher  than  any  boy  in  the  academy,  when  he  ought  to  have  been 
studying  his  lessons.  Only  a  few  years  ago,  when  we  were  chat- 
ting together  about  our  early  life  at  Exeter  and  in  college,  he  said, 
in  his  frank  and  simple  way,  with  a  laugh  and  half  a  sigh,  'Bowen, 
I  made  a  great  mistake  in  so  neglecting  distasteful  duties,  though 
you  may  think  I  made  up  for  it  by  following  the  bent  of  my  in- 
clinations for  catching  and  dissecting  bullfrogs.  I  have  been 
obliged,  even  of  late  years,  to  study  hard  on  some  subjects  dis- 
tinct from  and  yet  collateral  with  my  especial  pursuits  which  I 
ought  to  have  mastered  in  my  boyhood."  2 

iThis  may  be  the  "Skeleton  of  a  frog,  North  America,"  numbered  1335 
in  his  manuscript  catalogue  of  the  specimens  now  at  the  Boston  Society  of 
Natural  History. 

2  According  to  the  college  records,  in  his  senior  year  Wyman  stood  No.  50 
in  a  class  of  fifty-three;  let  no  budding  anatomist,  however,  expect  to  achieve 
scientific  eminence  by  contenting  himself  with  a  corresponding  rank;  some  of 
the  earlier  pupils  of  Agassiz  were  none  the  wiser  for  their  imitation  of  his  ex- 
cessive smoking  at  a  certain  period. 


JEFFRIES  WYMAN  175 

It  does  not  appear  that  young  Wyman  had  any  special  prefer- 
ence for  the  practice  of  medicine;  he  was  emphatically  a  born 
naturalist.  But  at  that  period  naturalists,  as  a  class,  hardly  ex- 
isted; the  very  word,  as  in  the  well-known  anecdote  of  Agassiz 
and  his  colleagues  in  the  White  Mountains,  was  in  danger  of 
interpretation  as  equivalent  to  "naturals."  The  lecture-room  and 
the  illustrated  magazine  had  not  then  become  familiar  mediums 
for  scientific  instruction  and  personal  income.  With  few  excep- 
tions the  naturalists  of  the  time  were  practitioners;  their  vocation 
was  medicine;  science  was  merely  an  avocation.  At  all  events 
Wyman  could  see  no  means  of  gratifying  his  natural  history  tastes 
other  than  by  joining  his  father's  profession.  Soon  after  his 
graduation,  in  1833,  he  entered  the  Harvard  Medical  School,  and 
pursued  his  studies,  partly  with  his  father  and  partly  with  Dr. 
John  C.  Dalton,  father  of  the  distinguished  physiologist  of  the 
same  name. 

In  the  spring  of  1837,  he  received  the  degree  of  M.  D.,  presenting 
a  graduation  thesis,  entitled  "De  oculo,"  with  drawings.  This 
was  never  printed;  but  soon  afterward  (September,  1837)  he 
published  in  The  Boston  Medical  and  Surgical  Journal  his  first 
paper,  "  On  the  Indistinctness  of  Images  Formed  by  Oblique  Rays 
of  Light,"  a  physiologic  essay  for  which  his  anatomic  thesis  con- 
stituted a  natural  foundation. 

Soon  after  graduation  he  opened  an  office  in  Boston  on  Howard 
Street  (not  Harvard  or  Washington,  as  sometimes  stated).  What 
practice  he  had  is  not  known;  we  may  be  assured  that  he  pre- 
pared for  it  diligently,  awaited  it  patiently,  and  attended  to  it  faith- 
fully. He  was  soon  appointed  demonstrator  of  anatomy  at  the 
medical  college  under  Dr.  John  C.  Warren.  It  is  the  duty  of  the 
demonstrator  to  aid  the  lecturer  by  making  in  advance  the  dis- 
sections and  preparations  needed  to  illustrate  the  exposition  of  the 
structure  of  an  organ  or  region ;  for  this  office  Wyman  was  particu- 
larly well  equipped,  and  he  held  it  for  two  years.  In  July,  1838, 
he  also  received  a  temporary  appointment  as  assistant  physician 
at  the  Massachusetts  General  Hospital.1 

1  To  replace  Dr.  J.  B.  S.  Jackson  who  was  himself  performing  the  duties  in 


176          LEADING  AMERICAN  MEN  OF  SCIENCE 

The  compensation  as  demonstrator  was  slight  and  Wyman 
felt  that  his  father  had  already  done  enough  in  educating  his  sons. 
He  lived  within  his  means,  but  there  is  no  reason  to  think  that  his 
health,  strength  or  efficiency  was  impaired  by  undue  frugality.  As 
was  the  custom  in  those  days  of  a  volunteer  fire-department,  he 
accepted  from  Samuel  A.  Eliot,  Mayor,  an  appointment  dated 
September  i,  1838,  and  was  assigned  to  Engine  No.  18.  The  rule 
was  that  the  first  comer  to  the  engine-house  should  bear  the  lan- 
tern and  be  absolved  from  other  work ;  Wyman  lived  near  by  and 
his  promptitude  generally  saved  him  from  all  severe  labor  than 
that  of  enlightening  his  company. 

During  this  period  there  was  offered  a  really  extraordinary  oppor- 
tunity for  usefulness  and  self-support.  In  1839,  by  the  bequest 
of  John  Lowell,  Jr.,  there  had  been  founded  in  Boston  the  Lowell 
Institute.  This  provided  for  the  delivery,  each  winter,  of  several 
courses  upon  various  subjects  by  lecturers  invited  from  all  parts 
of  the  civilized  world.  It  has  thus  not  only  instructed  the  public 
but  also  proved  an  incentive  and  an  aid  to  the  advancement  of 
knowledge.  The  first  trustee,  John  Amory  Lowell,  appointed 
Wyman  as  curator  at  $500  per  annum.  He  held  the  office  for 
three  years,  and  during  the  second  (1840-41),  gave  a  course  upon 
Comparative  Anatomy  which  proved  so  attractive  that  its  repeti- 
tion was  demanded.1  For  the  lectures  the  compensation  was 
liberal  (and  has  since  been  increased) ;  with  the  funds  thus  earned 
by  his  first  essay  in  teaching  others  he  went  abroad  to  seek  further 
instruction  for  himself. 

He  reached  Paris  in  May,  1841.    Although  Cuvier  had  then 

the  absence  of  Dr.  Henry  I.  Bowditch.    There  is  no  evidence  that  Jeffries 
Wyman  served  as  house-physician  during  his  medical  course. 

1  The  Boston  Evening  Transcript  of  December  3,  1840,  and  January  12, 
1841,  has  somewhat  extended  notices  of  the  opening  and  closing  lectures  of 
this  course.  While  regarding  his  manner  and  delivery  as  perhaps  too  quiet 
they  recognize  that  "he  was  a  perfect  master  of  the  subject  and  indefatigable 
in  his  efforts  to  disseminate  among  his  hearers  that  ardent  love  of  science 
which  is  so  manifest  in  himself.  The  drawings  (the  work  of  the  lecturer  him- 
self) were  spirited  and  conspicuous,  very  well  executed,  and  precisely  of  the 
kind  wanted  for  illustration  to  a  popular  audience." 


JEFFRIES  WYMAN  177 

been  dead  nearly  twelve  years  that  city  was  still  the  center  of 
biologic  science.  Wyman  attended  the  lectures  of  Flourens, 
Longet  and  Majendie  on  Physiology,  and  those  of  de  Blainville, 
Dumeril,  Milne-Edwards,  St.  Hilaire  and  Valenciennes  on 
Zoology  and  Comparative  Anatomy.  In  the  summer  of  1842, 
after  the  lectures  were  over,  he  made  pedestrian  tours  along  the 
Loire  and  the  Rhine,  returned  through  Belgium  and  then  went 
to  London.  There,  while  studying  the  Hunterian  collections  at 
the  Royal  College  of  Surgeons,  he  learned  that  his  father  was 
alarmingly  ill;  he  departed  as  soon  as  practicable  but,  to  his  in- 
tense grief,  arrived  too  late  to  see  his  beloved  parent  alive. 

After  his  return  to  Boston  he  wrote  for  Silliman's  Journal 
(American  Journal  of  Science  and  Arts)  reviews  of  three  widely 
different  publications,  viz.,  DeKay's  Zoology  of  New  York, 
Vogt's  Embryologie  des  Salmones,  and  Agassiz's  Monographies 
d'Echinoderms,  mvans  et  fossiles.1  These,  and  the  two  that 
appeared  in  the  same  journal  twenty  years  later  of  Weir-Mitchell 
and  Morehouse's  Respiration  of  Turtles  and  Owen's  Monograph 
of  the  Aye- Aye,  are  apparently  his  only  reviews;  it  may  be  inferred 
that  he  did  not  prefer  the  attitude  of  critical  commentator. 

Congenial  occupation  was  offered  in  1843  by  his  appointment 
as  professor  of  anatomy  and  physiology  in  the  medical  depart- 
ment of  the  Hampton-Sidney  College  at  Richmond,  Virginia;  this 
involved  his  absence  from  Boston  only  in  the  winter  and  spring, 
when  the  milder  climate  was  advantageous. 

In  1847,  upon  the  death  of  Dr.  J.  C.  Warren,  the  instruction 
in  anatomy  and  physiology  at  the  Harvard  Medical  School  in 
Boston  was  intrusted  to  Dr.  Oliver  Wendell  Holmes  (who  was 
an  accomplished  anatomist  as  well  as  poet  and  writer);  his  was 
the  Parkman  professorship,  named  in  honor  of  Dr.  George  Park- 
man.  At  the  same  time,  Wyman,  then  thirty-three  years  old,  was 

i  The  monographs  of  his  future  colleague  were  characterized  as  follows: 
"They  constitute  one  of  the  most  important  additions  which  have  been  made 
to  modern  zoology,  no  less  in  consequence  of  the  completeness  of  the  plan 
upon  which  they  have  been  conceived  than  the  fidelity  with  which  they  have 
been  executed." 


178          LEADING  AMERICAN  MEN  OF  SCIENCE 

appointed  Hersey  Professor  of  Anatomy  in  the  Lawrence  Scientific 
School,  a  part  of  Harvard  College  in  Cambridge.1  Wyman  made 
the  single  word,  anatomy,  cover  Embryology  and  Comparative 
Physiology,  both  with  reference  to  Vertebrates  rather  than  Inver- 
tebrates. They  thus  became  complementary  to  the  courses  of 
Agassiz  (appointed  at  about  the  same  time)  on  Geology  and  Paleon- 
tology, and  on  Zoology  with  more  special  reference  to  the  Inverte- 
brates. In  this  connection  it  may  be  added  that  while  the  title  of 
the  likewise  newly  established  chair  of  Asa  Gray  was  the  compre- 
hensive one  of  Natural  History,  his  instruction  was  practically 
confined  to  Botany. 

Upon  the  subjects  above  named  Wyman  gave  two  courses  of 
lectures.  His  enforced  migration  southward  in  midwinter  threw 
the  courses  into  the  fall  and  spring.  During  my  pupilage,  1859-62, 
Wyman's  lectures  constituted  a  senior  elective.  The  limited  time 
allowed,  and  the  lack  of  preparation  of  his  hearers,  did  not  permit 
him  to  offer  a  complete  exposition  of  any  one  topic.  But  every 
word  told.  He  spoke  from  notes,  which  were  yearly  revised  and 
rewritten  so  as  to  embody  the  latest  information.2 

The  writer  heard  both  courses  three  times,  and  feels  that  he 
profited  more  by  the  last  than  by  the  first.  Wyman  had  many 
and  accurate  diagrams,  made  by  himself;  and  they  were  always 
carefully  arranged  before  each  lecture.  His  use  of  specimens 
for  illustration  was  really  profuse,  notwithstanding  the  fact, 
which  he  greatly  lamented,  that  the  museum  was  on  the  floor 
above  the  lecture-room,  involving  a  laborious  and  perilous  trans- 
fer by  the  stairs  or  by  a  sort  of  dumb-waiter.  At  that  period 

1  The  fund  for  this  chair  represented  the  consolidation  of  bequests  made 
successively  between  1772  and  1812  by  Ezekiel  Hersey,  Sarah  Derby,  John 
Gumming,  Abner  Hersey,  and  Esther  Sprague.     During  Wyman's  incum- 
bency the  income  varied  from  $827.39  to  $1,375.85,  but  in  the  earlier  years 
it  was  not  all  paid  to  him. 

2  Among  the  interesting  documents  preserved  by  his  family  is  a  set  of  his 
"Notes."    The  sheets  measure  19  cm.  by  16.5  (7.5  by  5.5  in.);  the  paper  cover 
bears  at  the  left  margin,  "1849,  Comp.  Physiology;"  the  complete  title  is: 
"Harvard  University.    Lectures  on  Comparative  Physiology  in  the  Scientific 
School  (April  ii  to  June  18),  2d  term,  1849.    J-  Wyman,  Hersey  Prof." 


JEFFRIES  WYMAN  179 

experimental  physiology  had  made  little  progress  in  this  country, 
but  Wyman  devised  some  most  ingenious  and  effective  pieces  of 
apparatus,  which  he  too  modestly  called  " dodges";  among  these 
was  one  for  the  demonstration  of  ciliary  movement.1  In  a  letter 
criticizing  a  recently  issued  text-book  of  physiology  for  the  lack 
of  experimental  detail,  he  adds,  "  Everything  that  can  be  rein- 
forced by  experiment  should  be."  Yet  I  never  knew  him  inflict 
needless  pain  upon  any  creature. 

He  used  the  blackboard  perhaps  less  readily  and  picturesquely 
than  Agassiz,  but  with  more  care  and  accuracy  and  with  great 
effect.  He  did  not  look  constantly  at  his  audfcnr^  ?  nd  he  never 
spoke  forapplause.  iiis  hearers  respected  his  wish  that  the  only 
expression^  oi  approval  should  be  perfect  silence  and  attention; 
but  occasionally  a  quiet  smile  would  usher  in  some  quaint  illustra- 
tion of  his  subject,  and  embolden  the  audience  to  a  subdued  dem- 
onstration. At  the  close,  he  always  remained  for  an  hour,  explain- 
ing specimens,  and  discussing  questions  with  interested  students. 

With  the  Boston  Society  of  Natural  History  he  was  identified 
during  almost  his  whole  scientific  life.  Joining  in  October,  1837, 
he  early  served  as  secretary  and  as  curator  of  several  departments. 

At  the  annual  meeting,  May  17,  1843,  a*  ^ne  a§e  °f  twenty- 
nine,  he  delivered  an  address  which  is  thus  mentioned  in  the 
Proceedings,  vol.  i,  p.  116: 

"Then  followed  the  Annual  Address,  from  Dr.  J.  Wyman,  a 
learned  and  interesting  discourse  on  the  progress  of  science  in 
the  various  branches  of  Natural  History  during  the  past  year. 
At  the  close  of  the  address  it  was  voted  '  That  the  thanks  of  the 
Society  be  presented  to  Dr.  Jeffries  Wyman,  for  his  interesting 
and  instructive  address,  and  that  a  copy  be  requested  for  publi- 
cation.' "  2 

Elected  President  in  1856,  he  at  first  declined,  holding  that  he 

1  In  a  letter  of  November  25th,  1869,  feeling  that  it  would  be  useful  in  my 
own  instruction,  he  devotes  to  it  two  pages  and  a  diagram;  it  was  not  pub- 
lished until  1871. 

2  There  is  no  evidence  that  the  address  was  ever  published;  the  manuscript 
is  in  possession  of  his  daughter.     It  will  be  noted  that  this  was  not  the  presi- 
dential address;  to  that  office  he  was  chosen  thirteen  years  later. 


180          LEADING  AMERICAN  MEN  OF  SCIENCE 

could  be  more  useful  as  merely  a  member.  Prevailed  upon  to 
accept,  he  was  retained  in  the  office,  in  spite  of  repeated  resigna- 
tions, until  his  connection  with  the  Peabody  Museum  of  Archae- 
ology and  his  temporary  absence  in  Europe  forced  the  society  to 
relieve  him  in  1870.  He  almost  invariably  attended  the  meetings, 
and  almost  as  invariably  had  something  interesting  to  communi- 
cate; but  he  always  waited  until  others  had  spoken. 

Under  his  administration,  the  society  prospered  in  every  way. 
The  membership  increased;  the  collections  were  enlarged  and 
displayed;  a  new  building  was  erected  with  funds  partly  given  by 
a  friend  of  his; l  public  lectures  were  delivered;  and  the  value  of 
the  society  to  the  community  and  to  science  was  brought  to  the 
highest  point.  Some  idea  of  the  extent  of  his  activity  may  be 
gained  from  the  fact,  that,  during  the  ten  years  from  1860  to  1870, 
the  titles  of  his  communications  are  about  fifty  in  number,  some 
of  them  being  elaborate  and  extended  papers.  Among  the  rest 
is  a  loving  memorial  of  his  friend  Dr.  A.  A.  Gould,  many  passages 
of  which  might  now  be  applied  to  himself. 

Wyman  was  a  member  of  the  American  Academy  of  Arts  and 
Sciences2  (in  Boston),  but  attended  its  meetings  less  constantly 
than  those  of  the  Natural  History  Society.  Of  the  National 
Academy  of  Sciences  he  was  named  one  of  the  original  members 
in  1863.  He  does  not  appear  to  have  attended  the  meetings  as 
his  name  is  absent  from  the  rolls  in  1865-70,  but  in  1871  it  is 
included  among  the  Honorary  Members;  in  the  following  year  it 
was  "transferred  to  the  list  of  Active  Members." 

Wyman  was  one  of  the  administrative  "Faculty"  of  the  Museum 
of  Comparative  Zo5logy  from  the  date  of  its  formation;  and  his 
relations  with  its  founder  were  always  of  the  most  cordial  nature, 
however  they  might  differ  upon  some  questions.3  He  recognized 

1  Dr.  William  J.  Walker. 

2  The  Memoirs  of  this  Academy,  vol.  9,  1867,  contain  one  of  Wyman's 
most  important  papers,  "On  the  Development  of  Raia  batis"  (a  ray  or 
skate),  and  his  "Notes  on  the  Cells  of  the  Bee"  was  printed  in  the  Pro- 
ceedings, vol.  7,  1868. 

3  As  to  Evolution,  see  the  extracts  on  p.  193. 


JEFFRIES  WYMAN  181 

and  admired  the  powers  of  his  zob'logic  colleague;  and  Agassiz, 
for  his  part,  never  tired  of  praising  Wyman,  and  of  advising  his 
students  to  attend  his  lectures;  his  good  opinion  of  the  teacher 
was  tranf  erred  to  the  pupils  of  the  latter;  and  indeed,  in  all  ana- 
tomical and  medical  circles  Wyman's  name  was  a  passport  to 
favor  and  opportunity.1 

From  personal  participation  in  the  Civil  War  Wyman  was 
excluded  by  his  age  and  health;  but  his  lively  interest  in  it  was 
practically  shown  in  various  ways  and  is  evinced  by  the  following 
extracts  from  letters  dated,  respectively,  August  20,  1862,  Decem- 
ber 21,  1862,  May  8,  1863,  May  26,  1864,  and  January  15,  1865: 


"Knowing  how  many  there  are  connected  with  the  hospitals 
who  shirk  their  duties  ...  I  do  not  know  when  you  and  Adams 
(see  p.  201,  note)  will  have  a  better  chance  to  do  good  than  that 
now  at  your  disposal."  "The  weather  here  is  severely  cold,  and 
if  such  prevails  on  the  Potomac  the  sufferings  of  the  soldiers  must 
be  fearful."  "I  presume  you  will  have  enough  to  do  for  the 
present  to  take  care  of  the  wounded  from  the  Fredericksburg  dis- 
aster, the  consequences  of  downright  folly  on  the  part  of  the  man- 
agers of  the  war."  "I  could  not  help  feeling  indignant  when  I 
read  the  account  of  the  attack  at  Honey  Hill,  to  find  that  our 
troops  were  again  marched,  as  they  have  been  so  often,  in  the 
face  of  a  battery  where  it  was  equally  disastrous  to  advance  or 
retreat;  it  does  seem  to  me  that  there  was  a  disgraceful  blunder 
on  the  part  of  some  one.  ...  At  Thanksgiving  time  I  visited 
the  Army  of  the  Potomac.  I  went  to  the  picket-lines  and  took  a 
deliberate  look  with  my  glass  into  a  rebel  battery;  they  did  not 
pay  me  the  compliment  to  offer  a  single  bullet;  of  course  I  don't 
complain." 

On  the  8th  of  October,  1866,  Mr.  George  Peabody  gave  one 
hundred  and  fifty  thousand  dollars  "in  trust  for  the  foundation  and 

1  The  writer  is  sure  that  to  Wyman's  name  more  than  to  his  own  merits 
were  due  the  invitation  from  Dr.  Francis  H.  Brown,  also  a  pupil,  to  serve 
under  him  as  medical  cadet  at  the  Judiciary  Square  Army  Hospital  in  Wash- 
ington in  July,  1862;  the  request  to  perform  the  necropsies  there;  the  proposi- 
tion to  give  the  course  in  anatomy  at  a  medical  college;  the  detail  to  assist 
Dr.  John  H.  Brinton  on  "The  Surgical  History  of  the  War  ";  and  the  special 
opportunities  for  taking  examinations  for  higher  grades  in  the  service. 


1 82          LEADING  AMERICAN  MEN  OF  SCIENCE 

maintenance  of  a  museum  and  professorship  of  American  archae- 
ology and  ethnology  in  connection  with  Harvard  University." 
Wyman  was  named  one  of  the  original  seven  trustees  and  became 
curator. 

Into  this  work  Wyman  entered  with  all  the  zeal  and  enthusiasm 
of  youth.  As  was  his  wont,  he  did  all  himself:  every  specimen 
passed  through  his  hands.  Under  date  of  January  2,  1869,  his 
ideas  and  methods  were  clearly  set  forth: 

"I  once  thought  my  collection  of  thigh-bones  and  other  long 
bones  uselessly  large;  but  having  just  received  more  or  less  com- 
plete skeletons  of  over  fifty ! !  [the  exclamation-points  are  his  own] 
moundbuilders  from  Kentucky,  I  find  that,  for  the  purposes  of 
comparison  there  is  no  such  thing  as  too  many,  since  everything 
turns  on  averages.  I  see  six  months  work  ahead,  and  wish  you 
were  here  to  help  me.  Just  think  of  measuring  fifty  skulls,  each 
by  twenty-five  different  measurements." 

His  seventh  and  last  report  contains  an  account  of  Canni- 
balism among  the  American  Aborigines  based  upon  evidence  that 
he  had  been  accumulating  since  1861.  This  portion  of  the  Report 
is  reproduced  entire  in  the  American  Naturalist  for  July,  1874, 
and  there  are  quoted  here  only  the  characteristically  judicial  sum- 
mary of  the  evidence  and  the  grimly  humorous  comments  upon 
the  motives  for  the  origin  and  maintenance  of  cannibalism: 

"It  would  perhaps  be  going  too  far  to  say  that  the  presence  of 
human  bones,  under  the  circumstances  above  described,  amounted 
to  absolute  proof  of  cannibalism.  The  testimony  of  eye-witnesses 
would  be  the  only  sure  evidence  of  it.  There  is,  however,  nothing 
with  regard  to  them  which  is  inconsistent  with^this  practice,  nor 
does  any  other  explanation  occur  to  us  which  accounts  for  their 
presence  so  well.  [Surely  no  professed  logician  could  state  that 
better.] 

"The  idea  of  eating  human  flesh  as  ordinary  food,  may,  per- 
haps, have  had  its  origin  in  eating  it  as  a  necessity.  Once  tasted 
and  found  to  be  good,  as  all  cannibals  aver  that  it  is,  under  the 
influence  of  savage  instincts  and  passions,  the  conversion  of  an 
enemy's  flesh  into  meat  to  eat  would  be  very  natural.  .  .  .  The 
New  Zealander  loves  human  flesh  as  a  choice  food,  and  also  eats 
it  under  the  superstitious  belief  that  he  thus  not  only  incorporates 


JEFFRIES  WYMAN  183 

the  body  of  his  enemy  with  his  own,  but  absorbs  also  his  enemy's 
soul,  so  that  ever  after  the  two  are  one.  To  the  victor  this  had  an 
especial  significance,  for  believing  in  a  future  state  and  the  pres- 
ence of  his  enemy  there,  if  he  eats  him  in  this  life  he  makes  sure 
of  it  that  there  will  be  no  trouble  with  him  hereafter,  for  he  pos- 
sesses him  body  and  soul  already  [p.  411]." 

One  of  the  pleasantest  incidents  in  Professor  Wyman's  life,  and 
one  known  to  comparatively  few  besides  those  directly  concerned, 
was  the  presentation  to  him,  upon  the  eve  of  a  visit  to  Europe, 
of  a  testimonial  in  the  double  form  of  a  sum  of  money  and  a  letter 
expressing  the  "warm  feelings  of  gratitude  and  respect"  enter- 
tained toward  him  by  those  who  had  worked  in  his  laboratory 
between  the  years  of  1850  and  iSyo.1  Wyman's  acknowledgment 
was  characteristically  simple  and  modest,  and  is  here  reproduced: 

"CAMBRIDGE,  Jan.  19,  1870. 

"GENTLEMEN: — I  received,  yesterday,  the  letter  bringing  your 
good  wishes  and  expressions  of  regard.  They  are  most  gratify- 
ing to  me,  and  recall,  too,  the  great  pleasure  I  have  always  en- 
joyed from  personal  intercourse  with  you.  Such  testimonials  are 
among  the  greatest  rewards  a  teacher  can  receive. 

"Besides  these,  there  is  the  unexpected  and  most  generous  gift 
you  send.  I  thankfully  accept  it;  and,  following  one  of  your  sug- 
gestions, shall  gladly  devote  it  to  the  acquisition  of  some  instru- 
ments which  I  very  much  need;  and  so  through  your  kindness, 
shall  not  only  be  able  to  do  my  work  as  a  teacher  better,  but  shall 
have  the  most  pleasant  associations  connected  with  the  means 
you  give  me. 

"Offering  to  each  of  you  my  heartiest  thanks  for  this  your  re- 

1  According  to  the  Circular  as  to  this  Testimonial,  issued  October  20,  1869, 
after  he  had  ceased  to  receive  students  preparing  to  study  medicine,  the 
total  number  communicated  with  was  seventy-two.  Of  these  the  large 
majority  had  became  practitioners;  at  least  three,  the  two  Worcesters  and 
Mills,  entered  the  ministry;  the  following,  and  probably  others,  became 
teachers  or  private  investigators:  LeConte,  '50;  Dean,  Wilder  and  Moore, 
'59;  Warriner  and  Lombard,  '60;  Rothrock,  '61;  Amory  and  James,  '63; 
Derby  and  Fitz,  '64;  Bowditch,  '65;  and  Farlow,  '66;  thirteen  in  all.  The 
years  under  which  the  names  are  grouped  indicate  the  dates  of  beginning 
study  with  Wyman;  comparatively  few  remained  long  enough  to  obtain  a 
degree  with  him  before  graduating  in  medicine. 


184          LEADING  AMERICAN  MEN  OF  SCIENCE 

membrance  of  me,  I  am,  gentlemen,  with  the  kindest  regards  and 
best  wishes, 

"Always  sincerely  yours, 

"  [Signed]    J.  WYMAN. 

"Drs.  J.  T.  G.  Nichols,  Francis  H.  Brown,  H.  P.  Walcott,  Nor- 
ton Folsom,  H.  E.  Townsend." 

His  forethought  and  personal  attention  to  details  were  nowhere 
more  clearly  shown  than  in  his  preparations  for  expeditions,  or  for 
the  annual  flight  to  Florida  or  South  America.  In  no  other  way 
can  we  account  for  the  extent  of  the  collections  and  information 
gathered  during  these  absences  from  Cambridge.  In  fact,  his 
vacations  were  only  alternations  of  work;  and  his  European  tours 
in  1853  and  1870  were  less  occasions  of  rest  to  himself  than  of  gain 
to  the  institutions  with  which  he  was  connected. 

Wyman  was  chosen  to  the  Phi  Beta  Kappa,  and  attended 
the  annual  meetings;  he  was  not  a  Mason  or  a  member  of  any 
other  secret  organization.  He  did  not  smoke,  and  used  wine  with 
moderation  upon  occasion. 

Professor  Wyman  was  twice  married;  in  December,  1850,  to 
Adeline  Wheelwright,  who  died  in  1855,  leaving  two  daughters; 
in  August,  i8£i,  to  Annie  Williams  Whitney,  who  died  in  Febru- 
ary, 1864,  shortly  after  the  birth  of  an  only  son;  there  survive 
the  son  and  the  younger  daughter;  see  note  to  p.  172. 

The  following  statements  are  derived  from  the  memoir  of  Asa 
Gray  (see  note  to  p.  172). 

"Although  Wyman's  salary,  derived  from  the  Hersey  endow- 
ment (see  p.  178)  was  slender  indeed,  he  adapted  his  wants  to  his 
means,  foregoing  neither  his  independence  nor  his  scientific  work. 
In  1856  came  unexpected  and  honorable  aid  from  two  old  friends 
of  his  father  who  appreciated  the  son  and  wished  him  to  go  on 
with  his  scientific  work  without  distraction.  Dr.  William  J. 
Walker  sent  him  ten  thousand  dollars  outright.  Thomas  Lee, 
who  had  also  helped  in  his  early  education,  supplemented  the  en- 
dowment of  the  Hersey  professorship  with  an  equal  sum,  stipu- 
lating that  the  income  should  go  to  Wyman  during  life,  whether 
he  held  the  chair  or  not.  Seldom,  if  ever,  has  a  moderate  sum 
produced  a  greater  benefit. 


JEFFRIES  WYMAN  185 

"Winter  after  winter,  as  he  exchanged  our  bleak  climate  for 
that  of  Florida,  we  could  only  hope  that  he  would  return.  Spring 
after  spring  he  came  back  'to  us  invigorated,  thanks  to  the  bland 
air  and  the  open  life  in  boat  and  tent,  which  acted  like  a  charm; — 
thanks,  too,  to  the  watchful  care  of  his  attached  friend,  Mr.  Pea- 
body,1  his  constant  companion  in  Florida  life.  In  1874  it  was  late 
in  August  when  he  left  Cambridge  for  his  usual  visit  to  the  White 
Mountain  region,  by  which  he  avoided  the  autumnal  catarrh: 
and  there,  at  Bethlehem,  New  Hampshire,  on  the  fourth  of  Sep- 
tember, a  severe  hemorrhage  from  the  lungs  suddenly  closed  his 
valuable  life." 

Half  a  century  ago  science  was  far  less  extensive  and  specialism 
was  less  imperative.  It  was  possible  for  one  individual  to  be  a 
naturalist  in  a  very  broad  sense.  Wyman  was  not  only  an  educated 
physician  and  for  a  time  an  actual  practitioner;  his  two  courses 
of  lectures  embraced  embryology,  anatomy  and  physiology,  mainly 
of  vertebrates,  yet  of  invertebrates  in  no  small  degree.  Most  of 
his  publications  deal  with  the  comparative  anatomy  of  vertebrates, 
but  there  are  papers  upon  the  structure,  habits  and  development 
of  insects,  shell-fish  and  worms;  upon  infusoria;  upon  fossil  re- 
mains and  prehistoric  human  bones  and  implements;  upon-  plants 
and  the  marks  made  by  ripples  and  raindrops;  the  remarkable 
discussion  of  the  irregular  forms  of  the  cells  of  the  bee  involved 
mathematic  computations. 

At  a  moderate  estimate,  Wyman's  published  communications, 
nearly  two  hundred  in  number,  would  cover  about  one  thousand 
octavo  pages,  with  many  figures  of  his  own  making.  A  part,  at 
least,  of  his  unpublished  drawings  and  notes  could  be  incorporated 
with  what  he  had  already  given  to  the  world.  Brought  together 
and  properly  edited,  his  works  would  be  at  once  a  benefit  to  science, 
a  memorial  of  their  author,  and  an  earnest  of  that  which  he  was  so 
often  urged  to  undertake,  but  which  his  successors  should  now 
aim  to  accomplish ;  namely,  a  comparative  anatomy  of  vertebrates 
based  upon  American  forms. 

The  year  of  Wyman's  inauguration  as  professor  at  Harvard 
was  signalized  by  his  recognition  of  the  gorilla  as  a  new  species 

1  George  Augustus  Peabody,  Esq.,  Burleigh  Farm,  Danvers,  Mass. 


i86          LEADING  AMERICAN  MEN  OF  SCIENCE 

of  ape.  In  order  to  appreciate  the  significance  of  the  event  itself 
and  the  nature  of  Wyman's  part  in  it  some  preliminary  statements 
are  needed. 

At  that  time,  in  addition  to  the  many  kinds  of  monkeys — with 
tails  of  greater  or  less  length  and  lacking  the  vermiform  appendix 
of  the  intestinal  cecum — there  were  known  several  anthropoids 
or  man-like  apes,  with  no  trace  of  a  tail  but  having  an  appendix 
substantially  like  that  of  man.  These  apes  comprised  several 
species  of  gibbons  from  Asia  and  Asiatic  islands;  the  reddish- 
brown  orang  of  Borneo  and  Sumatra;  and  the  black  chimpanzee 
of  West  Central  Africa.  The  gibbons  were  not  discussed  by  Wy- 
man  and  need  not  be  considered  here;  the  chimpanzee  was  some- 
times spoken  of  as  the  " Black  orang."1  Wyman  had  already 
published  an  important  paper  on  the  structure  of  the  chimpanzee 
in  conjunction  with  Dr.  Thomas  S.  Savage,  a  corresponding  mem- 
ber of  the  Boston  Society  of  Natural  History;  while  serving  as  a 
missionary  on  the  West  Coast  of  Africa,  Dr.  Savage  obtained  the 
specimens  that  were  examined  by  Wyman,  and  himself  contributed 
Observations  on  the  External  Characters  and  Habits. 

The  first  scientific  account  of  the  gorilla  was  given  by  Wyman 
in  the  summer  of  1847,  after  the  reception  of  specimens  sent  him 
by  Dr.  Savage  from  New  York  on  the  i6th  of  July.  The  commu- 
nication was  made  to  the  Boston  Society  of  Natural  History  on  the 
i8th  of  August;  2  see  the  Proceedings,  vol.  2,  pp.  246-247. 

The  paper  was  printed  in  full,  with  four  plates,  in  the  Boston 

1  "The  term  Orang,  more  commonly  but  incorrectly  written  Ourang,  is 
strictly  applicable  to  the  eastern  species  only.    Orang  is  a  Malay  word  which 
means  a  reasonable  being,  and  is  also  given  to  man  and  the  elephant.    Outan 
means  wild  or  of  the  woods;  Orang-outan,  wild  man,  Cambang-outan,  wild 
goat.    Outang,  the  word  generally  used  as  the  adjective,  signifies  a  robber. 
See  Cuvier,  Animal  Kingdom,  McMurtrie's  Translation,  vol.  I,  p.  57,  note." 
Footnote  to  Wyman's  first  paper  on  the  Gorilla,  p.  417. 

2  At  the  meeting  of  the  association  of  American  Geologists  and  Naturalists 
in  Boston,  beginning  September  2oth,  the  specimens  were  also  shown  and 
commented  upon  by  Wyman,  who  that  year  was  the  Secretary.    That  associ- 
ation was  the  precursor  of  the  American  Association  for  the  Advancement  of 
Science  which  was  organized  at  Philadelphia  the  following  year. 


JEFFRIES  WYMAN  187 

Journal  of  Natural  History,  vol.  5,  part  4,  pp.  41 7-443 -1  The 
Journal  was  in  octavo  form,  and  the  large  plates  had  to  be  folded. 
Evidently  Wyman  realized  the  importance  of  the  subject  since 
he  took  trie  unusual  trouble  to  have  the  article  reprinted  in  quarto 
form  with  the  plates  on  heavier  paper  and  the  text  repaged  and 
very  slightly  rearranged  but  not  otherwise  altered,  excepting  as  to 
the  title-page,  which  reads  as  follows: 

A  DESCRIPTION  OF  THE  CHARACTERS  AND  HABITS 
OF  TROGLODYTES  GORILLA.  BY  THOMAS  S.  SAV- 
AGE, M.  D.  CORRESPONDING  MEMBER  OF  THE 
BOSTON  SOCIETY  OF  NATURAL  HISTORY.  AND  OF 
THE  OSTEOLOGY  OF  THE  SAME,  BY  JEFFRIES 
WYMAN,  M.  D.  HERSEY  PROF.  ANAT.  IN  HARVARD 
UNIVERSITY. 
(From  the  Boston  Journal  of  Natural  History.) 

BOSTON:  PRINTED  BY  FREEMAN  AND  BOLLES. 
1847- 

How  many  copies  of  this  quarto  edition  were  printed  I  have  not 
been  able  to  learn.  In  the  possession  of  Wyman's  family  is  his 
private  copy,  handsomely  bound  up  with  26  leaves  of  ruled  paper; 
upon  these,  in  Wyman's  unmistakable  handwriting,  are  copies  of 
letters  relating  to  the  gorilla,  prefaced  by  an  account  of  the  early 
stages  of  the  discovery. 

This  account  is  signed,  and  dated  Cambridge,  June  18,  1866. 
Although  referred  to  in  the  memoirs  by  Gray  and  Packard,  it  has 
never  been  printed  so  far  as  I  am  aware,  and  it  is  reproduced 
here  because  in  several  respects  it  is  a  unique  document.  Not 
only  is  the  topic  of  unusual  zoologic  and  anthropologic  interest; 
it  embodies  a  really  extraordinary  evidence  of  self-abnegation 
upon  the  part  of  both  the  men  most  directly  concerned;  and  it 
constitutes,  so  far  as  I  know,  the  sole  instance  of  Wyman's  claim 
for  priority ;  yet,  it  will  be  noted,  even  this  was  merely  written  for 

1  This  paper  and  the  part  of  the  Journal  containing  it  seem  to  be  very 
rare;  the  writer  will  be  grateful  for  information  as  to  the  location  of  copies. 


i88          LEADING  AMERICAN  MEN  OF  SCIENCE 

the  sake  of  his  family  with  no  hint  of  a  wish  that  it  be  published, 
even  after  his  death. 

To  the  writer  its  presentation  here  appears  as  almost  a  sacred 
duty,  a  duty  to  the  man,  to  his  family,  to  his  university  and  to  the 
nation.1 

TROGLODYTES  GORILLA,  SAVAGE 
HISTORY  OF  THE  DISCOVERY 

The  existence  in  Africa  of  a  large  ape,  which  without  doubt 
was  the  gorilla,  was  mentioned  by  Battell,2  and  by  Bowdich  in 
his  Mission  to  Ashantee,3  but  it  does  not  appear  that  either  of 
them  saw  the  animal.  In  April,  1847,  the  Rev.  J.  L.  Wilson 
brought  to  the  notice  of  Dr.  Thomas  S.  Savage,  while  the  latter 
was  on  a  visit  to  Gaboon,  the  skull  of  a  large  ape.  Dr.  Savage 
became  convinced  that  it  was  not  known  to  naturalists,  and 
was  able  to  obtain  through  the  aid  of  Mr.  Wilson  other  crania 
and  various  portions  of  the  skeleton,  including  the  pelvis  and 
some  of  the  long  bones.  He  also  sent  drawings  of  a  male  and 
female  skull  to  Professor  Owen,  who  satisfied  himself  from  them, 
that  the  ape  in  question  was  not  the  pongo  of  Borneo,  but 
expressed  (in  a  letter)  the  belief  that  the  crania  might  prove  to 
be  those  of  an  old,  adult  male  and  female  chimpanzee.  He, 
however,  threw  out  the  suggestion  that  as  there  were  two  species 
of  apes  in  Borneo,  Africa  might  also  possess  two  species. 

The  collections  of  crania  and  bones  belonging  to  Mr.  Wilson 
and  Dr.  Savage  were  placed  by  the  lat£er  in  my  hands  for  de- 
scription, Dr.  Savage  reserving  for  himself  an  account  of  the 

1  Were  a  dozen  persons,  ordinarily  intelligent  and  well-informed,  to  assign 
offhand  the  credit  for  introducing  to  science  "the  most  portentous  and 
diabolic  caricature  of  humanity  that  an  atrabilious  poet  ever  conceived," 
probably  at  least  one-half  would  name  Huxley;  three,  Darwin;  two  might 
name  Owen,  or  perhaps  one  of  these  would  recall  the  traveler,  Du  Chaillu; 
certainly  not  more  than  one,  if  any,  would  mention  either  Savage  or  Wyman. 
Even  in  the  American  edition  of  an  ostensibly  reliable  work,  Hartmann's 
Anthropoid  Apes  (International  Scientific   Series,  1886),  the  index  omits 
Wyman's  name;  in  the  text  (p.  5)  it  is  misspelled;  and  his  prior  contribution 
is  recorded  after  that  of  Owen. 

2  Purchas,  His  Pilgrimes,  London,  1625,  Part  II,  p.  984. 

3  London,  4to,  1819,  p.  440. 


JEFFRIES  WYMAN  189 

outward  characters  and  of  the  habits.  A  joint  memoir  was  pre- 
sented by  us  to  the  Boston  Society  of  Natural  History,  Au- 
gust i8th,  1847. 

In  the  meantime  Mr.  Samuel  Stutchbury,  Curator  of  the 
Bristol  Museum  in  England,  having  learned  of  Dr.  Savage  his 
discovery,  obtained  through  Captain  Wagstaff,  three  crania 
which  he  immediately  placed  in  the  hands  of  Professor  Owen 
for  description.  An  account  of  them  was  presented  to  the  Zoo- 
logical Society  of  London,  February  22,  1848,  six  months  after 
our  memoir  had  been  read  in  Boston. 

Professor  Owen  in  a  letter  to  Dr.  Savage  acknowledges  that 
our  description  established  the  specific  characters  of  the  gorilla 
and  that  priority  belonged  to  us.  Through  a  vote  of  the  Council 
of  the  Zoological  Society  the  osteological  characters,  as  set  forth 
by  me,  were  printed  as  an  appendix  to  Professor  Owen's  memoir, 
It  does  not  appear,  however,  either  in  the  Proceedings  or  the 
Transactions  of  the  Society  at  what  time  our  memoir  was  published 
nor  that  we  had  anticipated  him  in  our  description.1 

The  credit  of  the  discovery  clearly  belongs  to  Drs.  Wilson  and 
Savage,  chiefly  to  the  latter,  who  first  became  convinced  of  the 
fact  that  the  species  was  new  and  who  first  brought  it  to  the 
notice  of  naturalists.  The  species  therefore  stands  recorded 
Troglodytes  gorilla,  Savage. 

In  the  following  account  the  notice  of  the  external  characters 
and  habits  was  prepared  by  Dr.  Savage.  The  introductory 
portion  and  the  description  of  the  crania  and  bones,  and  also 
the  determination  of  the  differential  characters  on  which  the 
establishment  of  the  species  rests,  was  prepared  by  me.  In 
view  of  this  last  fact  Dr.  Savage  thought,  as  will  be  seen  in 
letter,  that  the  species  should  stand  in  my  name;  but  this  I 
declined.2 

In  a  conversation  I  had  with  Dr.  A.  A.  Gould  with  regard  to  a 
suitable  name,  when  I  informed  him  that  Hanno  stated  that  the 
natives  called  the  wild  men  of  Africa  Gorilla,  he  at  once  sug- 
gested the  specific  name  gorilla,  which  was  adopted. 

1  The  italics  are  mine.    I  am  unable  to  ascertain  or  even  to  conjecture  the 
date  of  Owen's  reception  of  the  first  information  as  to  the  paper  of  Wyman 
and  Savage.    His  letter  to  Wyman,  dated  July  24,  1848  (copied  in  the  latter's 
private  copy  of  the  gorilla  memoir  already  described),  begins:  "I  duly  re- 
ceived," etc.,  but  duly  is  a  very  indefinite  word.    Upon  this  matter  no  light  is 
thrown  in  the  Life  of  Owen  by  his  son. 

2  The  italics  are  the  present  writer's. 


190         LEADING  AMERICAN  MEN  OF  SCIENCE 

In  October,  1489,  Dr.  G.  A.  Perkins  brought  to  me  two  addi- 
tional crania  which  formed  the  subject  of  a  second  memoir. 

In  1859,  Mr.  P.  B.  Du  Chaillu  arrived  in  New  York  with  a 
large  collection  of  the  skins  and  skeletons  of  the  gorilla.  These 
he  kindly  placed  at  my  disposal.  My  notes  on  his  collection 
were  printed  in  his  book  of  travels.  The  account  of  the  dis- 
section of  a  young  gorilla  preserved  in  alcohol  and  which  he 
presented  to  me  was  printed  in  the  Proceedings  of  the  Boston 
Society  of  Natural  History,  vol.  7,  1860,  p.  211,  and  in  vol.  9, 
p.  203. 

[SIGNED]  JEFFRIES  WYMAN,  CAMBRIDGE,  June  18, 1866. 

His  studies  of  the  two  African  apes  naturally  led  Wyman  to 
compare  them  with  one  another  and  with  man.  His  second 
paper  on  the  gorilla  (American  Journal  Science  and  Arts,  n.  s., 
vol.  9,  1850,  pp.  34-45)  contains  unusually  positive  expressions: 

"Owen  regards  the  gorilla  as  the  most  anthropoid  of  all  known 
brutes.  After  a  careful  examination  of  his  memoir  I  am  forced 
to  the  conclusion  that  the  preponderance  of  evidence  is  unequivo- 
cally opposed  to  the  opinion  there  recorded.  .  .  .  There  seems 
to  be  no  alternative  but  to  regard  the  Chimpanzee  as  holding 
the  highest  place  in  the  brute  creation  [p.  41).  No  reasonable 
ground  for  doubt  remains,  that  the  Enge-ena  [gorilla]  occupies  a 
lower  position  and  consequently  recedes  further  from  man  than 
the  Chimpanzee  [p.  42]. 'Jl 

The  same  paper  contains  a  really  extraordinary — indeed,  for 
Wyman,  almost  anomalous — feature,  viz.,  the  formulation  of  a 
generalization  without  intimating  the  actual  or  probable  occur- 
rence of  exceptions.  On  p.  41,  in  describing  the  cranium  of  a 
gorilla,  he  says: 

"In  man,  the  intermaxillary  bones  form  a  projecting  ridge  on 
the  median  line  both  in  and  below  the  nasal  orifice  and  at  the 

1  It  will  be  noted  that  two  questions  are  involved,  viz.,  (a)  of  the  two 
African  apes,  gorilla  and  chimpanzee,  which  resembles  man  the  more  nearly? 
and  (b)  is  either  of  them  the  highest  animal?  Both  Wyman  and  Owen  ap- 
pear to  assume  that  it  is  merely  a  choice  between  the  two.  Waiving  for  the 
present  the  interesting  question  as  to  whether  even  man  is  the  highest  from 
a  purely  structural  standpoint,  there  are  certain  features  of  the  brain  of  the 
Bornean  ape,  the  orang,  that  are  more  anthropoid  than  those  of  the  two 
African  forms. 


JEFFRIES  WYMAN  191 

middle  of  the  border  of  this  opening  form  the  projecting  'nasal 
spine,'  which  is  not  met  with  in  any  of  the  lower  animals,  and 
is  therefore  an  anatomical  character  peculiar  to  man." 

The  italics  are  his,  a  rare  instance  of  emphasis  of  his  own  views.1 

Intimately  associated  with  the  subjects  of  the  papers  just  named 
is  his  elaborate  exposition  of  The  Cancellated  Structure  of  those 
Bones  which  have  a  Definite  Relation  to  the  Erect  Position  which  is 
Naturally  assumed  by  Man  alone.  Communicated  to  the  Natural 
History  Society  in  1849,  ft  was  not  published  until  1857 ;  fortunately, 
as  stated  in  the  note  to  p.  173,  it  was  reprinted  in  1902  by  Wyman's 
elder  brother  as  part  of  a  volume  on  Animal  Mechanics.  There 
are  described  and  figured,  from  sections  of  human  bones,  arrange- 
ments of  the  lamellae  and  intervening  spaces,  mechanically  adapted 
to  sustaining  the  weight  of  man  in  the  erect  attitude;  he  adds: 
"The  only  animals  in  which  I  have  detected  any  approach  to  the 
structure  of  the  neck  of  the  thigh  [bone]  in  man  are  the  chimpanzee 
and  the  gorilla.  ...  In  these  slight  traces  of  the  trusswork 
exist." 

Wyman's  judicial  temperament  was  never  more  needed  or 
more  conspicuous  than  in  his  treatment  of  the  ever-vexing  prob- 
lems of  the  differences  and  relative  rank  of  the  several  human 
races;  then,  as  now,  in  this  country,  those  problems  constituted 
a  " Negro  Question." 

As  early  as  1847,  m  h*8  nrst  gorilla  paper,  his  views  were  thus 
stated:  "It  cannot  be  denied  that  the  Negro  and  the  Orang  2  do 
afford  the  points  where  man  and  the  brute,  when  the  totality  of 
their  organization  is  considered,  most  nearly  approach  each  other." 

Granting  any  racial  differences,  and  assuming  the  descent  (or 
ascent)  of  the  human  species  from  one  or  more  ape-like  forms  now 
extinct,  the  validity  of  the  view  that  from  those  ancestral  stocks 

1  In  certain  apes  and  even  monkeys  has  been  detected  a  trace  (beginning 
or  proton)  of  the  nasal  spine;  and  there  have  been  recorded  several  cases  of  its 
more  or  less  nearly  complete  absence  in  man;  practically,  however,  as  stated 
by  Wyman,  it  constitutes  a  constant  and  peculiar  human  character. 

2  Here,  as  explained  on  p.  186,  he  uses  the  one  word  for  all  the  anthropoid 
or  tailless  apes, 


IQ2         LEADING  AMERICAN  MEN  OF  SCIENCE 

the  white  race,  as  a  whole,  has  advanced  further  than  the  black, 
will  be  no  more  denied  by  thoughtful  negroes  than  by  the  average 
man  of  to-day  would  be  denied  the  superior  physical  perfection 
of,  e.  g.,  the  type  of  the  Apollo  Belvedere. 

But,  in  the  first  place,  upon  several  occasions,  Wyman  took 
pains  to  specify  that,  in  respect  to  the  location  of  the  foramen 
magnum  (the  orifice  at  the  base  of  the  skull  through  which  the 
brain  is  continuous  with  the  spinal  cord),  the  North  American 
Indians  are  more  ape-like  than  the  Africans.1 

In  the  second  place,  the  same  paragraph  quoted  above  from 
his  gorilla  paper  contains  the  following  emphatic  declarations: 
"Any  anatomist  who  will  take  the  trouble  to  compare  the  skeletons 
of  the  Negro  and  the  Orang,  cannot  fail  to  be  struck  at  sight  with 
the  wide  gap  which  separates  them.  The  difference  between  the 
cranium,  the  pelvis,  and  the  conformation  of  the  upper  extremities 
in  the  Negro  and  the  Caucasian,  sinks  into  comparative  insig- 
nificance when  compared  with  the  vast  difference  which  exists 
between  the  conformation  of  the  same  parts  in  the  Negro  and  the 
Orang."  A  similar  remark  is  made  in  his  later  paper  on  the 
Hottentot,  B.  S.  N.  H.,  Proceedings,  December  i6th,  1863. 

We  may  imagine  the  scorn  with  which  Wyman  would  have 
repudiated  the  implication  of  a  novelist  that  an  intelligent  person 
could  not  distinguish  between  the  skull  of  a  gorilla  and  that  of  a 
negro.2 

Wyman's  trusted  janitor,  Clary,  was  a  dark  mulatto.  During 
the  Civil  War,  the  action  of  the  United  States  paymaster  in  offer- 
ing, at  first,  the  Massachusetts  regiments  of  colored  troops  the 
wages  of  laborers  instead  of  the  pay  of  soldiers,  as  had  been  prom- 
ised,3 was  vigorously  condemned  by  Wyman  in  a  letter  dated 

1  Observations  on  Crania,  Boston  Society  of  Natural  History  Proceedings, 
vol.  II,  April  i5th,  1858;  reprint,  p.  14;  also  November  20,  1867,  pp.  322-323. 

2  For  the  later  qualification  of  this  implication  and  for  some  comparisons 
between  African  and  Caucasian   brains  see  the  writer's  address,     "The 
Brain  of  the  American    Negro."    Proceedings  of  The  Annual  Conference 
of  The  National  Negro  Committee  for  igog. 

3  This  incident  was  related  by  me  in  an  address,  "Two  Examples  of  the 
Negro's  Courage,  Physical  and  Moral,"  at  the  Garrison  Centenary  in  Boston, 


JEFFRIES  WYMAN  193 

May  26,  1864:  "All  you  say  about  the  pay  of  the  soldiers  puts 
the  government  in  a  very  shabby  light;  its  members  are  disgracing 
themselves  in  the  eyes  of  the  world." 

Evolution  was  a  real  and  serious  issue  during  the  last  fifteen 
years  of  Wyman  's  life.  The  first  edition  of  Darwin's  The  Origin 
of  Species  appeared  in  the  fall  of  I85Q.1  Like  Asa  Gray,  Wil- 
liam B.  Rogers  and  some  others  Wyman  felt  no  antagonism  toward 
the  new  theory  and  was  even  somewhat  prepossessed  in  its  favor. 
But  the  formulation  and  publication  of  his  views  were  delayed  and 
modified  by  his  natural  deliberation  and  dislike  of  controversy; 
possibly,  also,  by  the  pronounced  opposition  of  his  nearest  col- 
league, Agassiz.  His  first  distinct  public  expression  of  opinion 
seems  to  have  been  in  the  following  paragraph  from  his  review 
of  Owen's  " Monograph  of  the  Aye- Aye,"  in  the  American  Journal 
of  Science,  26.  series,  vol.  36,  1863,  pp.  294-299: 

"We  conclude  with  expressing  the  belief,  that  there  is  no  just 
ground  for  taking,  and  that  we  arrive  at  no  reasonable  theory 
which  takes,  a  position  intermediate  between  the  two  extremes. 
We  must  either  assume,  on  the  one  hand,  that  living  organisms 
commenced  their  existence  fully  formed,  and  by  processes  not  in 
accordance  with  the  usual  order  of  nature  as  it  is  revealed  to  hu- 
man minds,  or,  on  the  other  hand,  that  each  species  became  such 
by  progressive  development  or  transmutation;  that,  as  in  the  in- 
dividual, so  in  the  aggregate  of  races,  the  simple  forms  were  not 
only  the  precursors,  but  the  progenitors  of  the  complex  ones,  and 
that  thus  the  order  of  nature,  as  commonly  manifest  in  her  works, 
was  maintained." 

For  Wyman  the  foregoing  was  quite  emphatic.  How  keenly 
he  realized  the  situation  appears  in  the  following  extract  from  a 
letter  written  in  1871  (undated,  but  received  by  me  on  May  30): 

December  loth,  1905,  printed  in  Alexander's  Magazine  for  January,  1906. 
See  also  the  address  referred  to  in  the  previous  note. 

1  At  that  time  the  present  writer  had  just  entered  Wyman's  laboratory  and 
begun  to  attend  the  meetings  of  the  Boston  Society  of  Natural  History.  He 
recalls  with  awe  the  earnest  discussions  among  the  intellectual  giants  of  the 
day. 


194          LEADING  AMERICAN  MEN  OF  SCIENCE 

"At  present  I  am  giving  a  few  lectures  on  Embryology  and  its 
bearing  on  Evolution  in  general.  It  is  a  curious  fact  that  the  op- 
ponents of  evolution  have  as  yet  started  no  theory  except  the  pre- 
posterous one  of  immediate  creation  of  each  species.  They  simply 
deny.  After  many  trials  I  have  never  been  able  to  get  Agassiz  to 
commit  himself  to  even  the  most  general  statement  of  a  concep- 
tion. He  was  just  the  man  who  ought  to  have  taken  up  the  evo- 
lution theory  and  worked  it  into  a  good  shape,  which  his  knowl- 
edge of  embryology  and  palaeontology  would  have  enabled  him 
to  do.  He  has  lost  a  golden  opportunity,  but  there  is  no  use  in 
talking  of  that."  l 

That  this  divergence  upon  a  vital  question  did  not  estrange  them 
personally  is  greatly  to  the  credit  of  both  these  great  men. 

In  the  posthumous  paper  on  the  shell-heaps  of  Florida,2  which 
Packard  believes  to  have  been  written  in  1873  or  early  in  1874, 
he  reiterates  his  general  view  and  in  a  way  applies  it  to  the  early 
stages  of  the  human  species: 

"The  steady  progress  of  discovery  justifies  the  inference  that 
man,  in  the  earliest  periods  of  his  existence  of  which  we  have 
knowledge,  was  at  the  best  a  savage,  enjoying  the  advantage  of  a 
few  rude  inventions.  According  to  the  theory  of  evolution,  which 
has  the  merit  of  being  based  upon  and  not  being  inconsistent  with 
observed  analogies  and  processes  of  nature,  he  must  have  gone 
through  a  period  when  he  was  passing  out  of  the  animal  into  the 
human  state,  when  he  was  not  yet  provided  with  tools  of  any 
sort,  and  when  he  lived  simply  the  life  of  a  brute." 

The  question  of  Abiogenesis  ("spontaneous  generation")  was 
considered  by  Wyman  with  his  habitual  caution.  He  performed 
two  extensive  series  of  experiments  with  flasks  3  containing  boiled 
solutions  of  organic  matter.  The  earlier  (1862)  seemed  to  indi- 

1  In  his  memoir  (referred  to  on  p.  172,  note)  Asa  Gray  relates  a  conversa- 
tion in  which  Wyman  expressed  the  same  regret  and  recalled  a  conversation 
of  his  own  with  Agassiz,  when  the  latter  said  that  Humboldt  had  told  him 
that  Cuvier  missed  a  great  opportunity  in  taking  sides  against  St.  Hilaire. 

2  Fresh-water  Shell-mounds  of  the  St.    Johns  River,   Florida.     Fourth 
memoir.    Peabody  Academy  of  Science,  Salem,  Mass.,  1875. 

3  One  of  these  historic  flasks  has  been  appropriately  placed  in  the  charge 
of  Theobald  Smith,  M.  D.,  Professor  of  Comparative  Pathology  in  Harvard 
University. 


JEFFRIES  WYMAN  195 

cate  the  possibility  of  the  reappearance  of  life  after  treatment  and 
under  conditions  that  were  supposed  to  be  fatal.  But  in  the  later 
series  (1867),  when  the  solutions  were  boiled  for  five  consecutive 
hours,  living  organisms  did  not  afterward  appear  therein.  Two 
years  later,  under  date  of  November  25th,  1869,  ne  wrote:  "After 
five  hours  boiling  all  flasks  fail  to  sustain  life.  Nevertheless, 
while  I  do  not  believe  spontaneous  generation  proved,  I  by  no 
means  consider  it  disproved."  What  a  perfect  illustration  of  the 
aphorism  of  his  friend  and  colleague,  Asa  Gray  (I  quote  from 
memory):  "Upon  many  subjects  a  truly  wise  man  remains  long 
in  a  state  of  neither  belief  nor  unbelief;  but  your  intellectually 
short-sighted  person  is  apt  to  be  preternaturally  clear-sighted, 
and  to  find  his  way  very  promptly  to  one  side  or  the  other  of  every 
mooted  question." 

Wyman  was  early  interested  in  the  study  of  monsters,  not  so 
much  as  curiosities  as  because  he  felt  the  truth  of  Goethe's  axiom, 
"It  is  in  her  mistakes  that  Nature  reveals  her  secrets;"  his  account 
of  a  double  fetus1  concludes  with  a  discussion  of  the  proximate 
causes  of  organic  arrangement: 

"The  force,  whatever  it  be,  which  regulates  the  distribution  of 
matter  in  a  normal  or  abnormal  embryo  always  acts  symmet- 
rically; and,  if  we  look  for  any  thing  among  known  forces  analo- 
gous to  it,  it  is  to  be  found,  if  anywhere,  in  those  known  as  polar 
forces.  The  essential  features  of  polarity,  as  in  symmetry,  are 
antagonism  either  of  qualities  or  forms.  Studying  the  subject  in 
the  most  general  manner,  there  are  striking  resemblances  between 
the  distribution  of  matter  capable  of  assuming  a  polar  condition, 
and  free  to  move  around  a  magnet,  and  the  distribution  of  matter 
around  the  nervous  axis  of  an  embryo." 

Closely  associated  with  these  considerations  is  the  problem  of 
the  relationship  between  the  arms  and  legs,  to  which  he  had  long 
given  much  thought,  and  upon  which  he  published  a  very  remark- 
able paper.2  The  opening  words  are  as  follows: 

1  Boston  Medical  and  Surgical  Journal,  March  29,  1866. 

2  On  Symmetry  and  Homology  in  Limbs.     Proc.  Boston  Soc.  Nat.  Hist., 
June  5,  1867,  p.  32. 


196          LEADING  AMERICAN  MEN  OF  SCIENCE 

"Anatomists  who  have  compared  the  fore  and  hind  limbs  of 
men  and  animals  have  mostly  described  them  as  if  they  were 
parallel  repetitions  of  each  other,  just  as  are  any  two  ribs  on  the 
same  side  of  the  body.  By  a  few  they  have  been  studied  as  sym- 
metrical parts,  repeating  each  other  in  a  reversed  manner  from 
before  backwards,  as  right  and  left  parts  do  from  side  to  side. 
We  have  adopted  this  last  mode  of  viewing  them,  because,  though 
open  to  grave  objections,  as  will  be  seen  further  on,  the  difficulties 
met  with  are,  on  the  whole,  fewer  than  in  the  other,  and  because, 
too,  it  is  supported  by  the  indications  of  fore-and-hind  symmetry 
in  other  parts  of  the  body."  1 

Those  who  have  adopted  his  view,  and  who  hope,  in  time,  to 
show  that  fore-and-hind  symmetry  is  a  fundamental  law  of  verte- 
brate organization,  are  encouraged  by  the  reflection  that  their 
leader  seldom  gave  even  a  qualified  assent  to  any  doctrine  which 
did  not  prove  in  the  main  correct. 

For  some  reason  Wyman  devoted  comparatively  little  attention 
to  neurology.  Under  date  of  July  25,  1864,  he  wrote: 

"I  shall  try  to  work  in  a  direction  in  which  I  have  hitherto  done 
but  little,  viz.,  the  nervous  system." 

The  papers  on  the  brains  of  the  frog  (1852)  and  opossum  (1869), 
while  admirable  and  suggestive  so  far  as  they  go,  fall  short  of 
what  might  have  been  expected.  The  former,  indeed,  contains 
what  is,  so  far  as  I  know,  the  sole  instance,  in  all  his  writings,  of 
a  serious  misapprehension,  viz.,  as  to  the  developmental  and  mor- 
phologic significance  of  the  fusion  of  the  right  and  left  olfactory 
bulbs  in  the  frog. 

It  fell  to  Wyman  to  report  upon  the  brains  of  two  notable  men, 
Daniel  Webster  (1853),  and  Louis  Agassiz  (1873).  To  them  he 
refers  in  the  last  letter  received  from  him,  dated  June  17,  1874, 
less  than  three  months  before  his  own  death.  He  says: 

"  Agassiz'  brain  weighed  1,495  grams,  Webster's  1,500  and  a 
trifle  more.  Practically  the  two  were  alike  as  far  as  absolute  weight 

1  The  writer  has  a  sheet  of  paper  upon  which,  on  Christmas  Day,  1861, 
Wyman  made  five  hasty  but  most  graphic  and  suggestive  sketches  of  the  ideal 
vertebrate,  with  its  viscera  and  limbs  symmetrically  arranged  with  reference 
to  a  central  neutral  point. 


JEFFRIES  WYMAN  197 

goes.  Neither  was  in  a  healthy  condition;  Webster's  was  some- 
what atrophied  and  did  not  fill  the  skull,  and  Agassiz'  had  no  doubt 
diminished  from  its  healthy  weight."  l 

About  two  years  after  Wyman's  Harvard  appointment  there 
devolved  upon  him  the  painful  duty  of  aiding  the  conviction  of  a 
colleague  of  the  crime  of  murder.  On  the  23d  of  November,  1849, 
Dr.  George  Parkman  (in  whose  honor  was  founded  the  chair  of 
anatomy  held  by  Dr.  Holmes)  was  killed  in  the  college  building 
by  John  W.  Webster,  professor  of  chemistry.  The  latter  tried  to 
dispose  of  the  corpse  by  various  means,  including  fire,  and  the 
fragments  of  bone  were  identified  by  Wyman  with  characteristic 
skill  and  caution;  his  evidence  related  also  to  the  manner  of  dis- 
membering the  body  and  to  the  determination  of  blood-stains.2 

So  predisposed  was  Wyman,  by  temperament  and  habit,  to 
recognize  imperfections  in  brilliant  and  apparently  perfect  general- 
izations, that,  had  he  written  a  Latin  grammar,  he  probably 
would  have  set  the  rules  in  small  type;  the  exceptions  thereto  in 
type  of  medium  size;  and  the  exceptions  to  the  exceptions  in  the 
most  conspicuous.  In  1865,  the  commonly  accepted  assertion  of 
Lord  Brougham  that  in  the  cell  of  the  bee  there  is  perfect  agree- 
ment between  theory  and  observation,  was  tested  by  measure- 
ments and  by  pictures  ingeniously  produced  by  the  cells  them- 
selves. He  concluded  that  "it  may  reasonably  be  doubted  whether 
a  type  cell  is  ever  made." 

In  1833  tne  sensational  newpaper  report  as  to  a  "shower  of 
flesh  and  blood"  was  disposed  of  by  Wyman's  recognizing  frag- 
ments as  similar  to  what  he  had  seen  disgorged  by  turkey-buzzards 
during  his  sojourn  at  Richmond.  In  1845  were  exhibited,  under 
the  name,  Hydrarchos,  what  were  claimed  to  be  the  bones  of  an 

1  According  to  the  above  figures,  reckoning  the  avoirdupois  ounce  as 
equivalent  to  28.35  grams,  each  of  the  brains  weighed  about  52.7  ounces. 
This  is  not  the  place  for  an  attempt  to  reconcile  the  figures  with  slightly 
higher  ones  published  elsewhere. 

2  The  execution  took  place  August  30,  1850.    The  descriptions  in  the  news- 
papers so  impressed  the  present  writer,  then  nine  years  old,  that  he  hanged 
himself  in  order  to  see  how  it  felt;  his  fi^*  scientific  experiment  nearly  proved 
his  last. 


198          LEADING  AMERICAN  MEN  OF  SCIENCE 

enormous  extinct  reptile.  Wyman  demonstrated  that  they  were 
cetacean  or  whale-like,  and  did  not  belong  even  to  one  and  the 
same  individual;  in  short  that  they  were  a  factitious  agglomeration. 
Among  Wyman's  numerous  other  contributions  to  the  knowl- 
edge and  the  interpretation  of  Nature,  the  following  possess 
perhaps  the  more  general  interest:  The  recognition  of  a  new 
species  of  manatee  (sea-cow)  from  West  Africa,  1849;  an  account 
of  the  brain,  organ  of  hearing  and  rudimentary  eyes  of  blind-fish 
from  the  Mammoth  Cave,  1843,  ^53-56 ;  tne  Jet  fr°m  tne  blow- 
hole of  whales,  shown  to  consist  chiefly  of  the  condensed  moisture 
of  the  breath,  1848-51;  the  gestation  of  the  Surinam  toad,  the 
male  of  which  "plants"  the  eggs  upon  the  back  of  the  female, 
where  they  are  carried  until  hatched,  1854-56;  the  mode  of  forma- 
tion of  the  rattle  of  the  rattlesnake,  1861;  on  the  alleged  "  sea- 
serpent,"  1863;  the  occurrence,  in  Florida,  of  a  true  crocodile,  a 
genus  distinct  from  the  alligator  and  previously  supposed  to  be 
restricted  in  this  hemisphere  to  the  southern  half,  1870;  the  change 
in  habit  of  cows,  found  grazing  under  water  in  Florida,  1874.  The 
same  state,  his  winter  refuge  and  work-place  for  so  many  years, 
yielded  a  really  astonishing  discovery,  communicated  to  the  Natural 
History  Society  on  the  7th  of  October,  1868,  under  the  title,  "On 
a  Threadworm  Infesting  the  Brain  of  the  Snake-bird,"  printed 
in  the  Proceedings,  vol.  12,  pp.  100-104,  and  partly  reproduced  in 
the  Monthly  Microscopical  Journal,  vol.  2,  1869,  pp.  215-216. 
The  snake-bird,  Plotus  anhinga  (now  Anhinga  anhinga),  is  com- 
monly called  "  water- turkey,"  but  is  more  nearly  related  to  the 
Divers  and  Cormorants,  differing  from  them  in  the  form  of  the 
bill  and  in  the  length  of  the  snake-like  neck.  In  seventeen  out  oj 
the  nineteen  individuals  examined,  Wyman  found,  coiled  up  on 
the  brain  a  mass  of  "threadworms,"  measuring  each  from  three 
to  six  centimeters  (about  one  and  one-fourth  to  two  and  one-half 
inches)  in  length;  the  number  varied  from  two  to  eight;  they  were 
always  upon  the  cerebellum,  just  behind  the  cerebral  hemispheres, 
and  in  some  cases  produced  a  distinct  depression.  "They  are 
viviparous  and  immensely  prolific.  Their  presence  constitutes 
what  may  be  called  the  normal  condition  of  the  bird.  Their  ear- 


JEFFRIES  WYMAN  199 

Her  stages  are  unknown,  as  likewise  the  manner  in  which  the 
transfer  of  the  embryos  is  effected  outwardly  to  some  other  animal, 
or  the  water,  and  then  back  to  another  Anhinga."  Surely  almost 
any  other  man  than  Wyman  would  have  found  in  this  surprising 
combination  a  medium  of  greater  scientific  reputation,  if  not,  in- 
deed, newspaper  notoriety.  But  that  was  not  his  way,  and  all 
exploitation  of  his  achievements  has  yet  to  be  accomplished. 

Wyman  described  very  few  species,  and  never  permitted  one  to 
be  named  after  him.  Less  and  less,  too,  year  by  year,  did  he  seek 
to  draw  conclusions  as  to  relationship  from  his  studies  of  animal 
forms.  His  interpretations  were  either  teleologic  or  purely  mor- 
phologic; that  is,  they  either  illustrated  function,  or  the  relations 
of  single  parts,  without  reference  to  the  entire  organism. 

This  feature  rendered  Wyman's  anatomic  work  absolutely 
free  from  zoologic  bias,  and  his  statements  were  always  received 
as  gospel  by  both  parties  to  a  controversy.  He  might  not  tell  the 
whole  truth,  for  he  might  not  see  it  at  the  time;  but  what  he  did 
tell  was  "  nothing  but  the  truth,"  so  far  as  it  went.  He  is  one  of  the 
very  few  naturalists  who  "  never  told  a  lie,"  simply  because  he 
never  allowed  his  imagination  to  outstrip  his  observation.  The 
hottest  partisan  felt  that  a  figure  or  description  of  Wyman's  was, 
so  far  as  it  went,  as  reliable  as  Nature  herself. 

The  peculiar  value  of  Wyman's  writings  and  of  his  collections 
depends  not  so  much  upon  their  extent  as  upon  their  absolute 
trustworthiness.  He  worked  and  thought  and  wrote  by  and  for 
himself.  His  facts  and  ideas  were  his  own;  and  the  smallest 
specimens  bear  the  impress  of  his  personal  manipulation.  All 
were  carefully  labeled  by  himself,  and  in  the  descriptive  catalogue 
are  rich  treasures  of  fact  and  thought  as  yet  unrevealed.1 

It  was  not  strange  that  he  carefully  guarded  the  fruit  of  his  life; 
and  the  writer  can  never  forget  the  solemn  sense  of  responsibility 
with  which  he  first  received  the  keys  and  the  "freedom"  of  the 
collection.2  And  although  the  demands  upon  Wyman's  time  and 

1  The  collection  and  its  catalogue  are  now  in  charge  of  the  Boston  Society 
of  Natural  History. 

2  My  diary  of  November  28,  1861,  chronicles  the  permission  (without 


200         LEADING  AMERICAN  MEN  OF  SCIENCE 

strength  made  by  the  Archaeological  Museum  debarred  him  from 
anything  like  his  former  care,  yet  he  never  forgot  his  first  love; 
and,  during  the  last  summer  of  his  life,  the  writer  found  him,  as 
of  old,  coat  off  and  brush  in  hand,  dusting  and  rearranging  the 
precious  things, — the  very  children  of  his  own  industry;  every  one 
of  them  reminding  him  of  some  special  time  in  the  bygone  years.1 
With  almost  a  sigh  he  looked  about  him,  and  said,  "No  one  man 
should  try  to  establish  a  great  museum  alone;  for  it  absorbs  all  his 
time  and  attention,  and  sooner  or  later  ruins  him,  or  falls  itself 
into  decay." 

Nor  was  this  a  temporary  feeling,  born  of  the  day's  weariness, 
or  the  recent  death  of  his  colleague,  Agassiz.  Seven  years  earlier, 
he  had  embodied  the  same  conviction  in  the  advice  not  to  aim  at 
a  multiplicity  of  specimens,  but  to  select  typical  and  representative 
forms  and  parts.  And,  nearly  as  we  may  think  that  his  own  mu- 
seum approaches  his  ideal,  it  can  hardly  be  doubted,  that,  under 
Providence,  had  it  been  one-half  so  large,  Wyman's  work  would 
have  been  lighter,  his  writings  fuller,  his  life  longer,  and  his  fame 
greater.  But  the  past  cannot  be  recalled.  The  man  is  gone.  His 
monument  remains,  its  intrinsic  value  doubled  by  our  recollections 
of  its  builder. 

To  the  ardent  naturalist  the  sharpest  temptation  is  that  forbid- 
den by  the  tenth  commandment.  A  rare  specimen,  a  new  fact, 
a  brilliant  idea,  these  are  the  things  which  he  covets,  and  can  hardly 
refrain  from  appropriating,  upon  an  unconscious  conviction  that 
he  is  best  capable  of  using  them  for  the  world's  benefit,  and  that 
the  end  justifies  the  means.  How  far  Wyman  was  thus  tempted, 
he  alone  could  tell;  but  that  he  never  yielded  in  word  or  deed 
would  be  unhesitatingly  declared  by  all  who  knew  him.  In  this, 
as  in  other  respects,  his  was  an  almost  "impossible  morality." 

This  freedom  from  the  failings  of  ordinary  men  extended  to 
language  and  demeanor  under  all  circumstances.  The  writer 

precedent,  I  understood)  to  take  out  of  town  his  finest  gorilla  cranium  and 
humerus. 

i  See  Asa  Gray's  reference  to  the  same  period  in  the  memoir  named  in  the 
note  to  p.  172. 


JEFFRIES  WYMAN  201 

never  knew  him  to  lose  his  temper.  The  nearest  approach  to 
profanity  was  the  result  of  the  catastrophe  now  to  be  described. 

As  has  been  stated  already,  Wyman's  courses  constituted  a 
senior  elective.  Those  who  attended  them  were  not  commonly 
admitted  to  the  laboratory.  During  the  second  year  (I  think)  of 
my  pupilage,  he  determined  to  occupy  a  lecture-hour  with  the 
exhibition  of  objects  through  microscopes.  It  was  a  great  innova- 
tion; never,  so  far  as  I  know,  had  such  an  exhibition  been  held 
before  and  the  result  did  not  encourage  its  repetition.  In  the  fore- 
noon of  the  previous  day  the  tables  in  our  laboratory  were  ar- 
ranged, the  instruments  were  adjusted,  and  each  of  us  had  his 
station  assigned  as  expositor  of  one  or  more  specimens.  That 
afternoon  Wyman  did  not  come  to  the  building  at  all;  would 
that  I  also  had  absented  myself.  In  the  corner  near  the  sink,  and 
near  the  door  of  entrance,  was  the  "macerating  closet"  communi- 
cating with  a  ventilating  flue  through  which  bad  odors  could 
escape.  The  floor  of  the  closet  was  at  about  the  height  of  a  table. 
Near  the  front  stood  a  large  glass  jar  containing  a  cat's  carcass  at 
an  advanced  stage  of  maceration;  that  is,  after  the  removal  of 
the  skin  and  viscera  and  most  of  the  flesh,  the  bones  had  been  put 
into  a  jar  of  water  and  allowed  to  stand  until  the  remaining  flesh 
had  decomposed  and  come  off,  leaving  the  bones  free.  I  had  oc- 
casion to  get  something  at  the  back  of  the  closet.  In  descending 
from  it  the  tail  of  my  dissecting-gown  caught  upon  the  top  of  the 
jar  and  pulled  it  over  after  me;  it  broke  and  the  contents  spread 
over  the  floor  and  entered  the  cracks.  The  intensity  of  the  odor 
may  be  inferred  from  the  fact  that  my  bespattered  clothing  had 
to  be  destroyed.  The  janitor  was  summoned  in  haste  and  we  all 
cooperated  toward  purification,  but  with  slight  success.  It  was  de- 
cided— rather  pusillanimously,  as  it  now  appears  to  me — not  to 
notify  the  professor.  The  windows  were  left  open  and  we  hoped 
it  would  not  be  so  bad  after  all. 

Next  morning  Wyman  arrived  before  me.  What  happened  was 
witnessed  by  a  fellow-student.1  The  professor  opened  the  door, 
stopped  short  upon  the  threshold,  threw  up  his  hands,  and  ejacu- 

1  J.  F.  Alleyne  Adams,  now  a  distinguished  physician  of  Pittsfield,  Mass. 


202          LEADING  AMERICAN  MEN  OF  SCIENCE 

lated  "  By  George,  what  a  confounded  smell ! "  Under  the  circum- 
stances, from  most  men  this  would  have  seemed  a  very  mild 
exclamation;  from  Wyman's  lips  it  fell  upon  his  listeners  like 
lightning  from  a  clear  sky. 

To  conclude  the  episode;  as  the  seniors  arrived  each  sniffed 
and  asked  whether  the  laboratory  always  smelt  like  that.  The 
exhibition  was  never  repeated.  Yet  Wyman  did  not  reproach  me 
nor  did  he  ever  again  refer  to  the  incident. 

In  those  days  listeners  to  anatomical  lectures  in  some  colleges 
and  medical  schools  were  too  often  shocked  by  words  or  innuen- 
does alike  unworthy  of  the  speaker  and  insulting  to  his  hearers. 
Wyman  never  uttered  a  word  that  might  not  have  been  published 
abroad. 

By  some,  this  purity  of  life,  reaching  as  it  did  into  things  great 
and  small,  will  be  regarded  as  of  no  avail,  unless  a  satisfactory 
account  is  given  of  his  religious  convictions.  This  is  out  of  the 
writer's  power,  and  even  further  from  his  purpose.  I  do  not  recall 
a  remark  of  Wyman's  upon  any  theological  topic  whatever.  His 
daughters,  however,  inform  me  that  "in  term  time  he  regularly 
attended  the  college  services,  in  vacations  the  Unitarian  church, 
and  joined  in  the  Communion.  He  was  a  lover  of  hymns,  was 
fond  of  reading  the  Bible  and  was  distinctly  a  religious  man."  To 
me  he  seemed  almost  above  the  need  of  spiritual  information  or 
correction.  His  life  was  blameless.  The  heaviest  of  all  human 
afflictions  was  endured  by  him  with  a  resignation  to  which  no  set 
forms  of  piety  could  have  contributed  aught  of  value.  He  worked 
on  for  science  and  for  his  fellow-men,  thinking  always  of  others 
rather  than  of  himself,  and  always  doing  better  than  he  could 
hope  to  be  done  by.  And  is  not  this  the  essence  of  true  religion  ? 

Still  we  may  gain  some  idea  of  his  convictions  respecting  the 
Creator,  the  relation  of  mind  to  matter,  and  the  other  life,  from 
passages  in  the  notice  of  Dr.  Burnett,  already  referred  to: 

"  He  seems  to  have  had  a  pervading  perception  of  God  in  his 
works,  and  often  in  eloquent  words  gave  expression  to  his  feel- 
ings when  some  new  manifestation  of  divine  wisdom  was  un- 
covered to  his  inquiring  mind.  ...  He  had  religious  faith  and 


JEFFRIES  WYMAN  203 

religious  hope.  .  .  .  There  is  a  moment  when,  if  ever  on  earth, 
the  heart,  if  it  opens  itself,  does  so  without  disguise;  it  is  that  dread 
moment  when  death  approaches  so  near,  that  there  is  no  alterna- 
tive but  to  look  upon  this  earthly  life  as  finished,  its  account 
made  up,  and  when  all  that  remains  for  the  mind  to  dwell  upon  is 
the  dissolution  of  the  body,  and  the  realization  of  another  life." 

Admired  and  trusted  by  his  associates,  by  the  younger  naturalists 
Wyman  was  absolutely  adored.  Ever  ready  with  information, 
with  counsel  and  encouragement,  so  far  from  assuming  toward 
them  the  attitude  of  a  superior,  he  on  several  occasions  permitted 
his  original  observations  to  be  more  or  less  merged  within  their 
productions.  His  generous  desire  to  accord  all  possible  opportunity 
and  credit  to  others  was  early  exemplified  in  his  relations  with  Dr. 
Savage  in  respect  to  the  gorilla,  as  described  on  p.  189.  Dr.  S. 
Weir  Mitchell  has  records  and  recollections  of  like  manifestations 
toward  himself.  In  the  following  instances  the  persons  concerned 
were  former  pupils  and  much  younger  than  Wyman.  His  account 
of  the  brain  of  the  opossum  was  published  as  an  appendix  to  the 
Osteology  and  Myology  of  the  same  animal  by  Eliot  Coues. 
Edward  S.  Morse  has  a  letter  urging  him  to  publish  his  own  eluci- 
dation of  a  morphologic  point  to  which  Wyman  had  already  given 
considerable  attention;  indeed,  in  a  letter  to  me,  dated  Janu- 
ary 15, 1872,  he  gives  a  diagram  and  alludes  to  a  certain  fact  as  a 
" bombshell."  Referring  to  the  thesis  of  Norton  Folsom,  which 
included  an  exposition  of  Wyman's  own  views  upon  "fore-and- 
hind  symmetry,"  he  wrote  me,  May  26,  1864:  "I  do  not  know 
exactly  what  ideas  he  brought  forward,  but  I  suppose  they  were 
not  unlike  those  we  have  all  talked  over  [wholly  his  own].  I  am 
very  glad  that  they  are  beginning  to  find  their  way  into  the  minds  of 
young  men,  for  the  older  ones  will  never  listen  to  them."  (The 
italics  are  mine.)  On  the  2yth  of  February,  1863,  while  my  own 
thesis  was  under  revision  for  belated  publication,  he  wrote:  "I 
do  not  know  that  I  have  anything  to  add  with  regard  to  'fore-and- 
hind  symmetry,'  but  if  you  find  it  convenient  to  make  use  of  the 
talks  we  have  had  about  it,  of  course  I  should  be  glad  to  have 
them  turned  to  account." 


204          LEADING  AMERICAN  MEN  OF  SCIENCE 

The  universal  regard  in  which  he  was  held  is,  in  the  writer's 
case,  intensified  by  the  sense  of  peculiar  obligations  which  might 
cloud  the  estimate  of  any  ordinary  individual.1  But  to  no  man 
more  fitly  than  to  Wyman  could  be  addressed  the  lines: 

"None  knew  thee  but  to  love  thee, 
Nor  named  thee  but  to  praise." 

Nor  were  any  strictures  ever  made  upon  him,  from  any 
quarter,  other  than  as  to  his  extraordinary  lack  of  personal  am- 
bition, and  his  aversion  to  public  notice  or  display.  If  there 
exist  already  no  such  words  as  inegotism  and  inegotistic  they 
really  need  to  be  coined  in  order  to  designate  a  characteristic 
of  Jeffries  Wyman  so  pronounced  that  it  almost  ceased  to  be  a 
virtue. 

His  attitude  toward  criticism  and  critics  is  well  exemplified  in 
the  following  extracts  from  letters  of  March  i,  1863,  and  Octo- 
ber 23,  1872,  respectively: 

"I  do  not  think  it  worth  the  while  to  trouble  yourself  about 

what  Professor or  anyone  else  chooses  to  say  by  way  of 

criticism  of  my  experiments  [on  'spontaneous  generation'].  One 
thing  is  certain;  if  they  are  good,  they  will  stand,  and  in  the  long 
run  fight  their  own  way.  The  verbal  criticism  of  anyone  cannot 
affect  them. 

"Have  you  seen  the  notice  by of  your  paper,  and  mine 

too  [how  characteristic  the  order]?  It  is  quite  comic  to  see  how 
he  charges  us  with  ignoring,  etc.  At  first  I  thought  of  correcting 
some  of  his  mistakes,  but  all  such  things  pass  out  of  mind  so  soon 
that  it  seemed  useless,  and  so  I  am  satisfied  that  the  best  way  is 
to  say  nothing." 

Wyman  rarely  referred  to  what  he  had  already  done,  and  still 
more  rarely  to  what  he  intended  to  do.  The  only  prognostication 

1  In  most  cases  the  reprints  of  Wyman's  papers  were  repaged,  without  even 
adding  the  original  page  numbers  in  brackets.  Probably  this  was  due  to  the 
preference  of  the  printer  and  was  simply  overlooked  by  the  author.  The  de- 
fect is  specified  partly  because  it  is  still  tolerated  by  some  writers,  but  mainly 
for  the  sake  of  showing  that  my  affection  and  admiration  for  my  friend  and 
teacher  have  not  rendered  me  absolutely  incapable  of  criticism. 


JEFFRIES  WYMAN  205 

of  this  sort  known  to  me  occurs  in  his  early  and  very  suggestive 
paper,  "Analogies  Which  Exist  Between  the  Structure  of  the  Teeth 
of  the  Lepidostei  (Gars  or  Gar-pikes),  and  those  of  the  Labyrintho- 
donts  (extinct  Amphibia)."  Bost.  Soc.  Nat.  Hist.,  Proceedings, 
1843,  v°l-  I>  PP-  *3 i-i32>  tne  report  (for  which,  indeed,  he  may 
not  have  been  responsible,  says:  "  Other  analogies  were  found  in 
the  osteology,  but  of  these  he  proposes  to  speak  in  a  future  com- 
munication." No  such  appears  to  have  been  made. 

Wyman's  language,  in  both  speech  and  writing,  was  always  sim- 
ple and  unaffected.  The  single  instance  of  what  might  be  termed, 
in  the  usual  sense,  "fine  writing,"  occurs  in  his  notice  of  the  life 
and  writings  of  Waldo  I.  Burnett,  while  speaking  of  the  cell: 

"The  nucleated  cell! — that  minute  organic  structure  which 
the  unaided  eye  cannot  discern,  yet  constituting  the  first  stage  of 
every  living  being,  the  seat  of  so  many  of  the  complex  phenomena 
of  animal  and  organic  life,  and  the  agent  by  which  even  the  mind 
itself  retains  its  grasp,  and  exerts  its  influence  upon  the  living 
structures  with  which  it  is  associated." 

Wyman  certainly  never  aimed  at  epigram,  yet  some  of  his  say- 
ings deserve  at  least  to  be  called  aphorisms.  Of  the  following 
the  first  two  have  been  quoted  already:  "For  the  purposes  of 
comparison  there  is  no  such  thing  as  too  many,  since  everything 
turns  on  averages."  "Everything  that  can  be  reinforced  by  experi- 
ment should  be."  "The  isolated  study  of  anything  in  Natural 
History  is  a  fruitful  source  of  error."  "No  single  experiment  in 
physiology  is  worth  anything."  "Here  [as  to  the  form  of  the  bee's 
cell],  as  is  so  often  the  case  elsewhere  in  nature,  the  type-form  is 
an  ideal  one,  and  with  this,  real  forms  seldom  or  never  coincide." 
"The  cat's  anatomy  should  be  done  first  because  it  would  also 
serve  as  an  introduction  to  human  anatomy  and  thus  become  an 
important  aid  to  medical  education."  "In  organizing  your 
department  aim  to  fulfil  these  four  conditions,  viz.  (i)  Let  the 
museum,  laboratory  and  lecture-room  be  on  one  floor.  (2)  Light 
the  museum  from  above.  (3)  Select  representative  forms;  for 
what  you  want  pay  liberally  if  necessary;  decline  other  things  even 
as  gifts.  (4)  Give  not  more  than  two  lectures  a  week,  so  as  to 


206          LEADING  AMERICAN  MEN  OF  SCIENCE 

secure  time  for  preparation,  for  research,  and  for  the  instruction 
of  advanced  pupils." 

As  may  be  inferred  from  his  character  and  from  what  has  been 
said  on  p.  205,  Wyman  preferred  simple  and  vernacular  terms. 
During  the  years  1871-72  several  of  his  letters  contain  frank  ani- 
madversions upon  certain  of  my  terminologic  novelties.  A  discus- 
sion of  the  subject  would  be  out  of  place  here.  The  following  rep- 
resentative extracts  from  a  letter  of  October  23,  1872,  should  be 
regarded  in  the  light  of  two  facts:  First,  his  own  studies  of  the  brain 
had  been  practically  restricted  to  forms  (frog  and  opossum)  where 
that  organ  is  comparatively  simple;  secondly,  it  had  not  been  then 
proposed  that  the  antagonistic  preferences  of  the  "  classicists " 
and  the  "vernacularists"  might  compromise  in  the  employment 
of  paronyms,  i.  e.,  national  slight  modifications  of  the  common 
Latin  antecedent;  e.  g.,  hippocampus,  which  becomes  hippocampo 
in  Italian,  hippocampe  in  French,  hippocamp  in  English,  and 
Hippokamp  in  German. 

"I  really  do  not  think  the  time  has  come  to  establish  a  general 
nomenclature,  that  is,  one  covering  the  whole  ground,  for  the 
reason  that  the  subject  is  still  in  its  infancy  and  not  ready  for  it. 
The  muddle  growing  out  of  human  anatomy  will  naturally  disap- 
pear in  the  course  of  time,  as  the  horizontal  method  of  viewing 
animals  must  prevail.  The  term,  Intermembral,  strikes  me  as 
good,  although  at  first  I  relucted  at  it."  * 

Notwithstanding  Wyman's  exceptionally  mild  disposition  his 
regard  for  verity  was  almost  fierce,  and  upon  occasion  he  could 
rejoice  in  the  tragedy  implied  in  the  phrase  (from  Huxley,  I  think), 
"The  slaying  of  a  beautiful  hypothesis  by  an  ugly  fact."  At 
Wyman's  hands,  however,  the  sacrifice  would  be  accomplished 

1  In  this  connection  it  is  interesting  and  instructive  to  note  that,  in  his 
Memoir  on  the  Development  of  the  Ray,  1867,  p.  35,  Wyman  consistently  em- 
ploys, if,  indeed,  he  did  not  coin,  the  singularly  appropriate  term  of  Greek 
derivation,  protocercal,  for  the  "primary,  embryonic  condition"  of  the  tail; 
this  alone  would  warrant  the  use  of  the  international  proton  rather  than 
"Anlage,"  the  international  and  (to  French  anatomists,  particularly)  ob- 
jectionable heteronym, 


JEFFRIES  WYMAN  207 

(like  the  killing  of  mortally  wounded  soldiers  by  old  Ambrose 
Pare),  "doucement  et  sans  cholere." 

This  rare  combination  of  judicial  severity  with  gentle  toleration 
in  Wyman's  character  is  admirably  portrayed  by  Dr.  Holmes: 

"If  he  had  been  one  of  the  twelve  around  the  Master,  whom 
they  had  seen  hanging  on  the  cross,  no  doubt,  like  Thomas,  he 
would  have  asked  to  see  the  print  of  the  nails,  and  know  for  him- 
self if  those  palms  were  pierced,  and  if  that  side  had  received  the 
soldier's  spear  thrust.  But  if  he  had  something  of  the  question- 
ing follower  in  how  many  ways  he  reminded  us  of  the  beloved 
disciple !  His  characteristic  excellencies  recall  many  of  the  apostle's 
descriptions  of  the  virtue  which  never  faileth.  He  suffered  long 
and  was  kind;  he  envied  not;  he  vaunted  not  himself;  he  was  not 
puffed  up;  he  sought  not  his  own;  was  not  easily  provoked;  thought 
no  evil;  and  rejoiced  in  the  truth.  If  he  differed  from  Charity  in 
not  believing  all  things,  he  followed  the  apostolic  precept  of  trying 
all  things,  and  holding  fast  that  which  stood  the  trial." 

Without  brilliancy,  Wyman  combined  qualities  rarely  found  in 
the  same  individual.  No  man  of  our  time  has  surpassed  him  in 
the  love  of  nature  for  its  own  sake,  free  from  the  hope  of  position, 
power,  or  profit,  in  keenness  of  vision  both  physical  and  mental, 
in  absolute  integrity  with  the  least  as  well  as  the  greatest  things, 
in  industry  and  perseverance,  and  in  method,  whether  for  the 
arrangement  of  collections,  or  the  presentation  of  an  idea.  And 
if  to  these  had  been  adjoined  a  tithe  of  the  ambition  displayed  by 
lesser  men,  and  had  his  health  and  strength  been  at  all  equal  to 
his  mental  powers,  no  one  can  doubt  that  his  attainments,  his  pro- 
ductions, and  his  reputation  with  the  world  at  large  would  have 
been  surpassed  by  those  of  none  of  his  contemporaries. 

However  much  we  may,  for  our  own  sakes,  regret  that  such  was 
not  the  case,  we  know  that  into  his  mind  never  entered  the  shadow 
of  bitterness.  His  recognition  of  others'  labors  was  full  and  gener- 
ous: his  mind  was  upon  the  facts  and  principles  of  nature,  and 
regarded  not  the  medium  through  which  they  were  obtained;  and, 
if  he  ever  prayed  for  health  and  strength,  it  was  surely  not  for  his 
own  advancement,  but  because  he  felt  within  himself  the  desire 
and  the  ability  to  learn  and  to  teach  the  truth. 


208         LEADING  AMERICAN  MEN  OF  SCIENCE 

His  reputation  was  less  widespread  than  that  of  some  others, 
but  it  was  more  deeply  rooted.  And  as  the  years  roll  on,  and  as 
the  final  estimate  is  made  of  the  value  of  what  has  been  done  in  this 
country,  we  may  be  sure  that  the  name  of  Jeffries  Wyman  will 
stand  high  among  those  who  have  joined  rare  ability  and  unwearied 
industry  with  a  pure  and  noble  life.  To  use  his  own  words  upon 
a  like  occasion,  "Let  us  cherish  his  memory,  and  profit  by  his 
example." 

This  account  of  Jeffries  Wyman  may  close  fitly  with  tributes 
from  two  who  were  not  only  friends  and  colleagues  but  masters  of 
the  art  of  expression,  Oliver  Wendell  Holmes  and  James  Russell 
Lowell: 

"A  more  beautiful  and  truly  admirable  character  would  be 
hard  to  find  among  the  recorded  lives  of  men  of  science.  The 
basis  of  all  was  in  his  personal  qualities,  his  absolute  truthfulness, 
his  great  modesty,  his  quiet  enthusiasm,  his  inexhaustible  patience. 
He  never  boasted,  he  never  sneered,  he  never  tired,  he  put  forward 
no  pretensions  to  infallibility,  though  he  was  never  caught  making 
mistakes;  he  was  always  exact  and  positive  as  to  what  he  had 
seen,  but  willing  to  suspend  his  opinion,  however  tempting  a 
generalization  might  offer  itself,  if  it  was  only  probable  and  not 
proved.  He  was  prompt  to  recognize  the  merits  of  those  whom 
he  considered  in  any  way  his  superiors,  generous  in  his  estimate 
of  his  equals,  and  a  willing  helper  of  those  who  looked  to  him  for 
any  kind  of  knowledge  he  could  impart.  In  a  word,  he  was  always 
the  same  honest-minded,  sagacious,  unprejudiced,  sweet-souled, 
and  gentle-mannered  creature  of  God,  whom  it  was  a  joy  to  meet, 
a  privilege  to  listen  to,  a  regret  to  part  from,  whom  it  is  a  sorrow 
to  lose,  and  whom  it  will  always  be  a  precious  inheritance  to  re- 
member." 

"The  wisest  man  could  ask  no  more  of  Fate 
Than  to  be  simple,  modest,  manly,  true, 
Safe  from  the  Many,  honored  by  the  Few; 
Nothing  to  count  in  World  or  Church,  or  State, 
But  inwardly  in  secret  to  be  great; 
To  feel  mysterious  Nature  ever  new, 
To  touch,  if  not  to  grasp,  her  endless  clue, 
And  learn  by  each  discovery  how  to  wait. 


JEFFRIES  WYMAN  209 

He  widened  knowledge  and  escaped  the  praise; 
He  wisely  taught,  because  more  wise  to  learn; 
He  toiled  for  Science,  not  to  draw  men's  gaze, 
But  for  her  lore  of  self-denial  stern. 
That  such  a  man  could  spring  from  our  decays 
Fans  the  soul's  nobler  faith  until  it  burn." 


Reproduced  by  permission  from  the  engraving  on  wood  by  Gustav  Kruell.     Copyright,  1890. 


ASA  GRAY 

BOTANIST 

1810-1888 
BY  JOHN  M.  COULTER 

ASA  GRAY  became  the  foremost  botanist  of  America,  with  a 
place  in  the  esteem  and  affection  of  American  botanists  so  unique 
that  it  is  not  likely  to  be  duplicated.  His  reputation  as  a  scientific 
man  was  perhaps  greater  in  Europe,  for  at  that  time  his  most 
important  work  could  be  appreciated  better  there;  but  his  hold 
upon  his  American  colleagues  was  more  that  of  a  genial  and 
helpful  teacher  than  that  of  an  impersonal  investigator. 

His  boyhood  gave  little  promise  of  this  great  future,  for  there 
was  nothing  in  his  surroundings  that  suggested  a  life  devoted  to 
science.  It  would  be  interesting  to  account  for  his  unusual  career 
by  discovering  something  in  his  ancestry  or  in  his  own  early  experi- 
ences that  brought  it  to  pass.  Unfortunately  such  records  are  too 
scanty  to  be  used  in  such  a  way,  and  Dr.  Gray  was  too  busy  with 
his  work  to  supply  more  than  the  barest  outline  of  his  early  life. 
His  father  was  a  tanner  in  Sauquoit,  Oneida  County,  New  York, 
where  Gray  was  born,  November  18,  1810.  While  he  was  very 
young  the  family  moved  to  a  small  settlement  about  a  smelting 
furnace — Paris  Furnace — where  the  father  established  a  tannery. 
The  child  was  set  the  monotonous  task  of  feeding  the  bark-mill 
and  driving  the  old  horse  that  furnished  its  motive  power.  Those 
who  have  seen  these  old  mills  can  appreciate  that  a  keen,  active 
boy,  restless  in  mind  and  body,  would  find  such  an  occupation 
depressing;  but  it  may  have  been  good  training. 

Mrs.  Gray  has  recorded  her  impressions  of  the  father  and  mother 
as  follows: 

211 


212          LEADING  AMERICAN  MEN  OF  SCIENCE 

"The  father  was  quick,  decided,  and  an  immense  worker;  from 
him  the  son  took  his  lively  movements  and  his  quick  eagerness  of 
character,  perhaps  also  his  ready  appreciation  of  fun. 

"The  mother  was  a  woman  of  singularly  quiet  and  gentle  char- 
acter, with  great  strength  and  decision,  and  possessed  a  wonder- 
ful power  of  accomplishing  and  turning  off  work;  a  woman  of 
thoughtful,  earnest  ways,  conscientious  and  self -forgetting." 

There  are  some  records  of  young  Gray's  precocity;  for  his 
schooling  is  said  to  have  begun  when  he  was  three  years  old;  and 
we  are  told  that  at  six  or  seven  he  was  a  champion  speller  at  the 
numerous  "spelling  matches"  that  once  furnished  the  chief  excite- 
ment of  country  neighborhoods.  This  was  not  bad  training  in 
accuracy  of  observation  and  tenacity  of  memory,  and  both  quali- 
ties were  later  shown  in  high  degree  by  the  great  botanist. 

Professor  Gray  was  not  "college- trained,"  and  his  formal  ed- 
ucation would  be  regarded  now  as  vague  and  irregular  and  not 
very  effective;  and  yet,  even  in  purity  and  felicity  of  literary  expres- 
sion, which  is  often  supposed  to  belong  peculiarly  to  university 
culture,  he  was  not  surpassed.    If  the  best  that  formal  education 
can  do  is  to  make  self-education  possible,  Gray  needed  no  more 
/  of  it  than  he  received.    He  was  one  of  many  strong  men,^fuUjo£ 
/  initiative,  who  develop  in  spite  of  lack  of  opportunities  and  con- 
\  trary  to  the  most  approved  principles  of  pedagogy. 

For  a  time  he  studied  at  a  "select  school "  taught  by  the  pastor's 
son,  and  at  twelve  he  was  sent  to  the  Clinton  Grammar  School. 
There  he  studied  for  two  years,  spending  his  summer  vacations 
in  the  harvest-field.  After  another  year  of  study  at  the  academy 
in  Fairfield,  his  general  education  was  brought  to  a  close,  at  a 
point  that  one  might  roughly  estimate  as  about  half  through  a 
good  high  school  of  to-day. 

His  practical  father  thought  the  time  had  come  to  turn  educa- 
tion into  useful  channels,  and  persuaded  him  to  begin  at  once  the 
study  of  medicine.  This  advice  to  a  partly  trained  boy  of  fifteen 
was  a  testimony  not  only  to  his  reputation  as  a  student,  but  also 
to  the  current  notion  as  to  the  amount  of  general  education  neces- 
sary for  a  physician.  In  1826,  therefore,  Gray  entered  the  "Medi- 


ASA  GRAY  213 

cal  College  of  the  Western  District,"  at  Fairfield.  His  medical 
training  was  a  patchwork  of  lectures  at  the  college  and  study  in 
the  offices  of  practicing  physicians,  chiefly  that  of  Dr.  John  F. 
Trowbridge  of  Bridgewater;  but  it  continued  for  five  years,  when 
in  1831  he  received  the  degree  of  M.  D.,  a  few  months  before  he 
was  of  age.  His  medical  studies,  however,  served  chiefly  to  intro- 
duce him  to  botany,  which  became  a  growing  desire  throughout 
his  preparation  for  a  medical  career. 

Fortunately  we  have  Gray's  own  record  of  his  distinct  "call" 
to  botany.  He  says  that  during  the  winter  of  1827-28  he  chanced 
to  read  the  article  "Botany"  in  Brewster's  Edinburgh  Encyclo- 
pedia, and  this  aroused  so  greatly  his  interest  in  the  subject  that 
he  bought  Eaton's  Manual,  read  it  eagerly,  and  longed  for  spring. 
When  the  first  flowers  appeared,  he  tried  his  Manual,  and  he  tells 
us  that  "spring  beauty"  (Claytonid)  was  the  first  plant  he  named. 
This  seems  to  have  been  like  putting  a  brand  to  a  mass  of  dry  fuel, 
for  his  interest  became  a  consuming  one,  and  the  fire  was  never 
extinguished.  The  call  came,  therefore,  not 
inspiration  of  a  teacher,  but  directly  from  Nature;  and_to_rnost 
great  naturalists  the  call  has  come  in  this  way.  ~ 

In  the  botany  of  that  day  there  was  a  peculiar  charm  to  the  real 
naturalists,  for  it  meant  the  forest  and  the  field,  the  "search  for 
hid  treasure,"  the  triumphant  discovery,  the  gradual  accumulation 
of  material,  the  ever-widening  horizon  of  "exchanges"  and 
friendships.  To-day  botany  has  made  very  great  advances,  and 
there  are  many  botanists  who  have  never  had  these  inspiring 
experiences;  but  those  who  have  had  them  recall  the  old  thrill  as 
a  beautiful  memory.  When  Asa  Gray  became  interested  in  bot- 
any, the  classification  of  plants — chiefly  of  flowering  plants — 
was  the  whole  of  botany;  and  it  remained  so  in  America  well 
through  his  long  life.  In  a  certain  sense,  North  America  was  then 
virgin  territory,  and  its  rich  flora  was  awaiting  discovery  and 
description.  Naturally  this  was  the  first  duty  of  American  bot- 
anists, and  it  was  a  task  that  bred  enthusiasm,  just  as  the  dis- 
covery of  a  new  country  is  more  exciting  than  its  cultivation. 

With  the  collection  and  naming  of  plants  there  came  naturally 


214 


LEADING  AMERICAN  MEN  OF  SCIENCE 


for  Gray  the  beginnings  of  an  herbarium,  the  best  record  of  his 
discoveries.  In  those  days  the  naming  of  ordinary  plants  was  by 
no  means  so  simple  a  thing  as  Gray  afterwards  made  it  for  the 
botanical  fraternity  through  his  admirable  Manual.  Descriptions 
were  often  meager  and  indefinite  and  scattered;  and  the  frequent 
uncertainties  of  determination  would  have  discouraged  any  but 
the  most  ardent.  Hence  in  Gray's  herbarium  there  began  to 
accumulate  his  perplexities — plants  that  he  could  not  identify. 

Up  to  this  time  botany  for  him  seems  to  have  been  only  a  fasci- 
nating recreation,  his  serious  purpose  still  being  the  medical  pro- 
fession; but  his  undetermined  plants  brought  him  into  his  vital 
botanical  connection,  and  so  determined  his  career.  In  1830,  a 
year  before  he  received  his  medical  degree,  he  went  to  New  York 
City  to  buy  medical  books  for  his  instructor,  Dr.  Trowbridge.  A 
package  of  undetermined  plants  was  taken  along,  for  he  hoped  to 
get  the  assistance  of  Dr.  John  Torrey,  at  that  time  the  best  known 
American  botanist.  He  failed  to  find  him,  but  left  the  plants. 
Presently  there  came  a  letter  from  Torrey,  inclosing  the  names  of 
his  plants,  and  doubtless  also  containing  kindly  expressions  of 
encouragement.  In  any  event,  this  letter  began  their  life-long 
acquaintance  and  intimate  association,  until  Dr.  Torrey's  death 
in  1873. 

Then  came  the  struggle  for  a  botanical^  o^ortunity,  a  struggle 
that  continued  for  seven  or  eight  years.  There  was  abundant 
opportunity  for  botanical  work,  but  in  those  days  there  were  no 
botanical  positions.  Botany  was  cultivated  chiefly  by  practicing 
physicians,  clergymen,  or  those  who  had  an  income  sufficient  to 
permit  it.  It  was  distinctly  not  recognized  as  a  means  of  livelihood. 
Gray  did  not  want  to  practice  medicine;  he  did  want  to  devote 
himself  to  botany;  and  he  had  no  income.  For  six  years  he  seems 
to  have  lived  "from  hand  to  mouth,"  teaching  during  the  winters, 
chiefly  in  Utica,  and  using  the  money  thus  earned  in  making 
collecting  tours  during  the  summers.  One  summer  he  spent  in 
Western  New  York;  and  another  in  the  "pine-barrens"  of  New 
Jersey,  where  he  was  sent  by  Dr.  Torrey.  Those  who  knew  him 
later,  when  his  great  reputation  had  become  established,  can  well 


ASA  GRAY  215 

imagine  that  his  bright,  cheery  spirit  carried  him  through  these 
uncertain  years  in  the  hope  that  some  opportunity  would  present 
itself.  It  was  in  the  midst  of  this  period,  December,  1834,  that  he 
read  his  first  paper  before  the  New  York  Lyceum  of  Natural 
History;  and  it  showed  that  the  young  botanist  did  not  flinch 
before  the  most  difficult  groups  of  plants,  for  it  was  a  monograph 
of  North  American  Rhynchosporeae,  a  group  of  sedges. 

Dr.  Torrey  became  so  much  impressed  with  his  ability  that  in 
1835  he  invited  him  to  become  his  assistant;  but  the  offer  was  with- 
drawn later  on  account  of  the  poor  outlook  for  paying  his  salary, 
which  doubtless  was  to  have  been  meager  enough.  To  young  Gray 
this  must  have  been  a  keen  disappointment,  for  it  seemed  to  shut 
the  door  of  a  great  opportunity.  It  would  have  seemed  to  most 
men  that  botany  should  be  abandoned  as  a  means  of  living  and 
serious  attention  given  to  establishment  in  some  recognized  pro- 
fession. But  Gray  returned  to  his  father's  house  and  spent  the 
year  in  preparing  his  Elements  of  Botany,  which  was  published  in 
May,  1836,  and  was  the  first  of  that  remarkable  series  of  text- 
books which  for  many  years  dominated  botanical  instruction  in 
the  United  States,  and  which  are  marvels  of  clear,  masterful 
presentation. 

In  1836,  through  the  influence  of  Dr.  Torrey,  Gray  was  ap- 
pointed curator  of  the  collections  of  the  New  York  Lyceum  of 
Natural  History,  and  in  its  new  building  he  made  his  home.  It 
may  be  said  that  his  career  as  a  professional  botanist  began  with 
this  appointment.  Although  it  was  to  be  regarded  as  only  a  tempo- 
rary makeshift,  his  whole  time  could  now  be  devoted  to  his  chosen 
pursuit.  About  this  time  an  opportunity  presented  itself  to  the 
young  botanist  that  seemed  to  promise  great  things.  A  govern- 
ment exploring  expedition  in  the  South  Pacific  was  being  organized, 
and  Gray  secured  appointment  as  botanist.  But  there  were  vexa- 
tious delays  and  changes  in  organization,  and  it  was  not  until  1838 
that  the  expedition  finally  sailed,  under  command  of  Captain 
Wilkes.  It  is  useless  to  imagine  what  would  have  been  the  result 
of  Gray's  personal  study  of  the  regions  visited  by  this  expedition; 
but  from  his  subsequent  contributions  it  is  safe  to  assume  it  would 


216          LEADING  AMERICAN  MEN  OF  SCIENCE 

have  included  much  more  than  the  description  of  new  plants. 
The  unknown  field  of  large  geographical  distribution  thrust  itself 
upon  him  even  at  a  distance;  and  it  is  certain  that  a  personal 
survey  of  vegetation  in  the  mass  would  have  made  the  subject  far 
more  real  and  urgent.  In  the  meantime,  however,  another  oppor- 
tunity had  presented  itself,  and  a  choice  had  to  be  made.  Gray 
decided  to  resign  his  appointment  to  the  expedition;  but  later  its 
collections  came  to  him  for  study  and  he  obtained  a  glimpse  of 
what  he  had  missed.  He  made  the  most  of  this  glimpse,  for  it 
gave  him  that  large  contact  with  plants  outside  of  North  America 
which  always  entered  into  his  perspective. 

What  he  regarded  as  the  larger  opportunity  was  the  invitation 
to  become  the  junior  author  with  Dr.  Torrey  of  the  contemplated 
Flora  of  North  A  merica.  While  waiting  for  the  Wilkes'  Expedition 
to  sail,  Gray  "tried  his  hand,"  as  he  says,  upon  some  of  the  families 
for  the  first  part  of  the  Flora,  with  the  result  that  he  was  asked  to 
become  joint  author.  It  is  hard  for  botanists  now  to  imagine  the 
chaotic  condition  at  that  time  of  descriptions  of  the  North  Ameri- 
can flora.  Even  for  the  best  known  region  publication  was  in 
confusion;  while  the  vaster  western  area  was  practically  unknown. 
To  bring  together  in  some  definite  organization  the  plants  already 
described,  and  to  describe  those  brought  back  by  various  explor- 
ing parties  in  the  great  west,  was  the  task  undertaken  by  the  two 
authors.  With  characteristic  energy  Gray  threw  himself  into  the 
work,  and  the  first  two  parts — about  half  of  the  first  volume — 
appeared  in  July  and  October,  1838. 

At  last  a  definite  and  congenial  position  was  open  to  him,  for 
in  1838  he  was  elected  Professor  of  Natural  History  in  the  newly 
organized  University  of  Michigan.  In  his  work  on  the  Flora,  he 
had  become  impressed  with  the  necessity  of  studying  the  North 
American  plants  stored  in  the  great  herbaria  of  Europe.  Among 
them  were  many  of  the  types,  that  is,  the  actual  plants  upon  which 
the  original  descriptions  had  been  based.  Nearly  all  of  the  earlier 
collections  of  North  American  plants  were  sent  to  Europe  for 
description;  and  the  subsequent  determinations  of  American  bot- 
anists were  based  upon  descriptions  often  imperfect  and  ambigu- 


ASA  GRAY  217 

cms,  with  no  opportunity  of  comparison  with  the  types.  It  is  easy 
to  understand  how  incorrect  determinations  would  be  made,  how 
these  would  be  perpetuated,  and  how  descriptions  would  finally 
be  changed  to  suit  the  wrongly  named  plants.  In  Gray's  first 
work  on  the  Flora  he  discovered  that  many  American  plants  were 
masquerading  under  false  names;  but  to  discover  the  real  plant 
to  which  a  name  belonged  could  only  be  done  by  examining  the 
type  specimen.  He  felt  that  no  more  of  the  Flora  should  be  pub- 
lished until  these  types  had  been  examined.  Hence,  although 
accepting  the  Michigan  appointment,  he  asked  for  and  obtained 
leave  of  absence  to  visit  Europe,  agreeing  to  serve  the  university 
at  the  same  time  by  buying  books  for  the  library. 

In  November,  1838,  he  sailed,  and  entered  upon  those  personal 
relations  with  the  most  distinguished  European  botanists  that 
continued  with  increasing  intimacy  until  his  death.  His  letters 
show  that  he  met  almost  every  distinguished  worker  in  systematic 
botany,  and  their  strong  personal  liking  and  admiration  for  him 
is  still  freely  expressed  in  the  great  herbaria  he  visited.  In  addition 
to  the  herbaria  of  England  and  Scotland,  he  visited  those  of  Paris, 
Lyons,  Geneva,  Munich,  Berlin,  Halle,  Hamburg,  and  Vienna. 
In  all  he  made  six  more  or  less  prolonged  visits  to  Europe  and  put 
the  identity  of  the  older  described  American  plants  upon  a  sure 
basis. 

Upon  Gray's  return  from  his  first  trip  to  Europe,  in  1839,  his 
leave  of  absence  was  extended  by  the  University  of  Michigan.  In 
fact  he  never  entered  upon  his  duties  there,  the  furlough  merging 
into  his  appointment  at  Harvard  College.  In  the  spring  of  1842, 
he  visited  Mr.  B.  D.  Greene  in  Boston,  and  while  there  met 
President  Quincy  of  Harvard.  Soon  afterwards  he  was  elected 
to  the  Fisher  Professorship  of  Natural  History,  and  continued  in 
this  position  for  the  rest  of  his  life.  The  large  opportunity  had 
come  at  last,  and  it  was  at  Harvard  that  Gray  made  his  great  repu- 
tation, entering  upon  his  duties  there  as  teacher,  author,  and  inves- 
tigator with  an  enthusiasm  and  an  ability  that  soon  made  Cam- 
bridge the  center  of  botanical  instruction  and  investigation  in 
America.  He  was  a  most  prolific  writer,  but  a  complete  list  of 


218          LEADING  AMERICAN  MEN  OF  SCIENCE 

/  his  publications  would  give  no  adequate  impression  of  Asa  Gray 
(  as  an  inspiring  teacher,  a  keen  and  kindly  critic,  and  a  bright  and 
)  genial  companion.  Such  impressions  come  only  from  personal 
\  contact,  but  they  go  to  make  up  the  appeal  to  affection ;  and  in  the 
/  case  of  Professor  Gray  they  accounted  in  no  small  way  for  his 
I  hold  upon  American  botanists. 

Reference  has  been  made  to  the  fact  that  Gray's  scientific  repu- 
tation during  his  life  was  perhaps  greater  in  Europe  than  in 
America,  for  his  real  scientific  colleagues  were  chiefly  in  Europe. 
Now  that  American  botany  has  developed  a  larger  perspective, 
some  unprejudiced  estimate  of  Gray's  place  in  the  science  may  be 
made  by  an  American  botanist.  During  the  period  of  Gray's 
botanical  activity,  the  science  of  botany  in  the  United  States  con- 
sisted almost  exclusively  of  the  determination  of  its  flora.  The 
Atlantic  states  had  been  explored  in  a  general  way,  and  enough 
was  known  to  justify  the  publication  of  a  few  manuals.  Isolation 
from  Europe,  however,  where  the  types  were  stored,  had  filled 
these  manuals  with  incorrectly  determined  plants.  But  the  flora 
of  the  much  greater  west  remained  practically  unknown.  Public 
and  private  enterprise  had  organized  exploring  expeditions  that 
touched  this  flora  slightly,  and  scattered  reports  contained  de- 
scriptions of  many  plants.  In  short  the  flora  of  North  America 
was  partly  in  confusion  and  more  largely  unknown  when  Gray 
began  his  work.  His  mission  was  to  organize  this  chaotic  material 
into  some  orderly  form,  clearing  away  confusion,  bringing  together 
scattered  and  often  ill-considered  publications,  and  establishing 
American  systematic  botany  upon  a  secure  foundation.  His  was 
the  first  serious  and  successful  attempt  to  grasp  the  flora  of  the 
whole  continent  and  relate  it  properly  to  all  previous  publications. 
It  may  be  said  that  American  systematic  botany  as  a  definite  organ- 
ized science,  rather  than  a  mass  of  isolated,  sporadic  efforts,  dated 
from  the  work  of  Asa  Gray.  To  appreciate  this  fact,  one  has  only 
to  compare  the  condition  of  systematic  botany  in  America  before 
and  after  Gray.  In  his  chosen  subject,  therefore,  Gray  stands 
for  its  permanent  transformation  in  America. 
Work  on  the  Flora  of  North  America  was  pushed  forward 


ASA  GRAY  219 

rapidly  after  Gray's  first  return  from  Europe;  but  at  this  time 
there  began  the  memorable  series  of  great  transcontinental  surveys, 
each  returning  with  notable  collections  of  the  plants  of  the  regions 
traversed.  Naturally  most  of  this  material  came  to  Torrey  and 
Gray  for  determination,  and  these  botanists  began  to  get  some 
glimpses  of  the  riches  of  the  American  flora.  Report  after  report 
was  published,  and  they  are  now  well-known  classics  in  American 
systematic  botany.  So  rapidly  did  the  new  material  appear  and 
so  endless  did  it  seem  that  the  Flora  of  North  America  was  hope- 
lessly out-of-date  before  half  of  it  had  appeared.  Any  attempt  to 
include  the  whole  flora  of  North  America  in  a  single  publication 
was  clearly  out  of  the  question  at  that  time,  and  so  its  completion 
was  postponed  indefinitely.  Many  years  later,  after  the  successive 
waves  of  new  material  had  subsided  a  little,  Dr.  Gray  renewed  the 
attempt  in  what  he  called  the  Synoptical  Flora  of  North  America. 
It  began  where  the  old  Flora  of  Torrey  and  Gray  stopped;  then 
it  began  to  traverse  again  the  ground  of  the  older  publication ;  and 
it  is  still  in  process  of  publication.  It  was  hoped  that  it  could  be 
completed  by  Dr.  Gray;  for  although  he  could  delegate  his  work, 
he  could  not  delegate  his  great  grasp  and  vast  experience.  But 
he  did  leave  a  reorganized  science,  and  a  better  conception  of  what 
such  work  demands  in  the  way  of  research  and  equipment. 

No  one  was  more  competent  to  estimate  Gray's  place  in  syste- 
matic botany  than  his  life-long  friend  Sir  Joseph  Hooker,  the  great 
English  botanist,  who  wrote  in  Nature,  upon  the  occasion  of 
Gray's  death: 

"When  the  history  of  the  progress  of  botany  during  the  nine- 
teenth century  shall  be  written,  two  names  will  hold  high  posi- 
tions; those  of  Professor  Augustin  Pyrame  DeCandolle  (Geneva) 
and  Professor  Asa  Gray.  One  sank  to  his  rest  in  the  Old  World 
as  the  other  rose  to  eminence  in  the  New.  Both  were  great 
teachers,  prolific  writers,  and  authors  of  the  best  elementary  works 
on  botany  of  their  day." 

The  preparation  of  the  large  Floras  referred  to  was  but  the 
bringing  together  in  organized  form  of  the  great  mass  of  mono- 
graphs and  "contributions"  of  new  species  that  was  constantly  is- 


220          LEADING  AMERICAN  MEN  OF  SCIENCE 

suing  from  Cambridge;  and  the  present  student  of  the  American 
flora  can  hardly  find  a  region  of  his  subject  that  is  not  underlaid  by 
a  substratum  of  Gray's  work.  The  amount  of  such  work,  when 
Gray's  numerous  other  publications  are  considered,  is  surprising. 
In  addition  to  his  tireless  industry,  he  had  a  remarkable  quickness 
for  discerning  characters,  seeing  at  once  what  many  would  have 
to  obtain  by  the  drudgery  of  analysis  and  patient  comparison. 
At  one  time  the  writer  was  preparing  a  monograph  of  a  small 
family  of  plants  under  the  direct  supervision  of  Dr.  Gray.  In 
the  course  of  the  work  a  snarl  of  confusing  forms  presented 
themselves,  and  the  most  laborious  examination  brought  no 
satisfactory  results.  The  material  seemed  too  abundant  to 
classify,  for  intermediate  forms  persisted  in  contradicting  every 
suggestion  as  to  grouping.  Into  the  midst  of  this  situation 
Dr.  Gray  came,  and  spreading  out  the  troublesome  forms  upon 
a  series  of  tables  so  that  his  eye  could  run  over  them  all  at  once, 
with  surprising  quickness  he  pointed  out  characters  that  proved 
to  be  exactly  the  trail  that  was  needed.  To  see  Gray  run  through 
a  bundle  of  newly  arrived  plants  was  a  revelation  to  the  cautious 
plodder.  Every  character  he  had  ever  met  seemed  vivid  in 
his  memory  and  ready  to  be  applied  instantly;  and  the  bundle 
was  "sorted"  with  a  speed  that  defied  imitation.  It  seemed 
like  intuition,  but  it  was  vast  experience  backed  by  a  wonderful 
memory;  perhaps  it  could  be  called  genius.  Besides  this  facility 
for  work,  Gray's  descriptions  were  marvels  of  aptness  and 
lucidity.  As  his  long-time  friend  W.  M.  Canby  has  written, 
he  had  "a  rare  faculty  of  conveying  his  own  knowledge  to  others 
J^y  ftfntftUff  ar>daccurate  description."  When  one  compares 
Gray's  brief  but  complete  descriptions,  containing  no  unnecessary 
or  inappropriate  word  or  phrase,  with  the  long,  labored,  repetitious 
and  ineffective  descriptions  of  many  systematists,  this  characteri- 
zation will  be  appreciated. 

Turning  from  Gray's  work  as  the  great  organizer  of  systematic 
botany  in  North  America,  to  his  work  as  a  teacher,  hij 


Contact  with  students,  his  large  correspondence,  and  his  text-books 
are  all  to  be  considered.    Perhaps  no  more  intimate  description 


ASA  GRAY  221 

of  Professor  Gray  in  the  class-room  has  been  given  than  that  by 
Dr.  Farlow,  first  his  pupil  and  afterwards  his  colleague  at  Harvard 
University.  His  first  impressions  are  recorded  as  follows: 

"I  expected  to  find  an  elderly  and  rather  austere  man;  but  I 
found  a  young-looking  man,  with  strikingly  bright  and  expressive 
eyes,  quick  in  all  his  motions,  and  so  thoroughly  in  earnest  and 
absorbed  in  his  subject  that  he  assumed  that  all  his  hearers  must 
be  equally  interested.  There  was  an  air  of  simplicity  and  straight- 
forwardness, without  a  trace  of  conscious  superiority  or  pedantic 
manner,  He  was  always  young  in  spirit  and  his  enthusiasm  was 
contagious." 

He  was  a  great  teacher,  not  in  the  sense  of  exacting  a  rigid 
discipline,  but  in  the  far  better  sense  of  transforming  interest  into 
enthusiasm.  Nor  did  he  coddle  interest,  but  trained  it,  often  se- 
verely. The  writer  very  distinctly  remembers  submitting  to  him  a 
piece  of  work  that  must  have  been  callow  in  the  extreme,  but  which 
seemed  to  its  author  fairly  creditable.  Glancing  through  it  with 
characteristic  quickness,  Gray  sat  down  and  took  a  half  hour  out 
of  an  extremely  busy  day  in  performing  a  most  searching  and  re- 
lentless piece  of  dissection.  As  the  flimsy  fabric  was  torn  to  tatters, 
the  victim  felt  all  the  sinking  of  heart  and  discouragement  that 
must  come  to  a  man  convinced  that  he  is  a  complete  failure.  After- 
wards he  discovered  that  the  operation  was  not  to  destroy  but  to 
train,  and  the  lesson  was  never  forgotten.  It  brought  a  perspective 
that  no  amount  of  coddling  could  have  done.  Another  phase  of 
Gray's  teaching,  and  one  far  too  much  neglected  by  scientific  men, 
is  well  brought  out  by  an  incident  in  the  experience  of  Dr.  J.  T. 
Rothrock,  who  says: 

"It  was  not  sufficient  that  the  conclusions  should  be  correct, 
but  they  must  be  stated  in  exactly  the  right  way.  An  artistic  turn 
of  a  sentence,  making  it  graceful  as  well  as  logical,  was  in  his 
eyes  of  the  utmost  importance.  'There  now,  that  is  neatly  stated,' 
is  an  expression  which  yet  rings  in  my  ears.  It  was  uttered  by 
Dr.  Gray,  when  at  last  I  had  succeeded  in  'putting  a  point'  as  he 
thought  it  should  be.  I  had  written  my  first  scientific  paper  at 
least  six  times,  and  each  time  thought  it  was  as  well  done  as  could 
be;  certainly  as  well  done  as  I  was  capable  of  doing  it.  But  my 


222          LEADING  AMERICAN  MEN  OF  SCIENCE 

critic  was  merciless.  I  mentally  resolved  each  time  that  I  would 
not  re-write  it;  but  I  did  re- write  it;  and  was  obliged  to  continue 
doing  so  until  he  thought  it  might  be  allowed  to  pass.  It  was  the 
most  helpful  lesson  I  ever  received  in  the  art  of  staling  things." 

Gray  insisted  upon  developing  initiative  in  the  student.  Perhaps 
wCr^insysiemat^T&oiany  lends  itself  more  kindly  to  a  slavish 
following  than  almost  any  other.  It  is  so  much  easier  to  copy 
descriptions  than  to  make  them  afresh,  especially  when  they  seem 
clear  and  appropriate.  This  slavish  following  Dr.  Gray  could  not 
endure,  and  when  the  writer  submitted  him  some  pages  of  a  con- 
templated manual,  he  was  informed  that  he  was  to  act  as  an  inves- 
tigator rather  than  a  recording  machine.  To  see  the  plant  vividly, 
to  seize  the  essential  features,  and  then  to  describe  them  aptly 
was  to  him  as  much  a  matter  of  individual  style  as  the  production 
of  a  literary  composition. 

Gray's  work  as  a  teacher  through  his  Manual  touched  his 
greatest  audience.  The  first  edition  appeared  in  1848,  and  seven 
editions  were  published.  Probably  no  manual  of  botany  was  ever 
so  widely  used  for  so  long  a  time,  and  it  well  deserved  its  success. 
It  was  a  model  of  clear  arrangement  and  masterly  description. 
It  was  simple  enough  for  use  by  the  beginner;  its  keys  were  easily 
understood;  and  its  descriptions  were  marvels  of  brevity  and  com- 
pleteness. Long  drawn  out  descriptions  are  confusing  and  to  the 
beginner  they  are  baffling  and  often  misleading;  but  the  Manual 
selects  the  essential  features  of  each  species  and  makes  it  stand  out 
sharply.  It  easily  supplanted  all  preceding  manuals,  and  for  half 
a  century  it  has  been  the  constant  companion  of  every  botanist 
within  its  range.  This  made  Gray's  name  a  household  word 
wherever  botany  was  either  studied  or  only  cultivated  as  a  pas- 
time, and  helped  in  no  small  way  to  establish  his  singularly  preemi- 
nent reputation  in  this  country. 

Not  only  through  his  more  technical  scientific  work,  but  more 
largely  through  his  Manual,  he  developed  an  enormous  corre- 
spondence. Collectors  everywhere  sent  him  plants  for  determina- 
tion or  confirmation,  and  he  never  turned  them  aside.  It  was 
always  a  mystery  how  he  found  time  to  write  so  fully  to  so  many 


ASA  GRAY  223 

botanists  of  all  grades,  from  the  beginner  to  the  intimate  associate. 
With  considerable  trepidation  the  writer,  then  a  very  amateurish 
collector,  sent  some  plants  to  Dr.  Gray,  which  he  thought  might 
be  of  interest.  It  seemed  presumptuous  to  intrude  upon  the  time 
of  one  so  occupied  with  larger  matters,  and  with  plants  which  were 
probably  common  enough  to  him.  The  surprise  came  in  the  form 
of  a  letter  so  full  of  kindly  suggestion  and  encouragement  that  it 
stimulated  the  ambition  and  aroused  the  affection  of  the  recipient 
so  effectively  that  it  determined  his  career  and  secured  his  unbroken 
devotion.  This  case  was  far  from  being  a  solitary  one,  for  just  such 
letters  went  daily  from  the  study  at  Cambridge,  prompted  by  the 
kind  heart  of  the  great  botanist;  and  it  is  little  wonder  that  he  held 
all  the  younger  botanists  of  the  country  in  the  hollow  of  his  hand, 
and  became  to  them  the  court  of  final  appeal.  It  was  the  combina- 
tion of  his  opportunities  and  his  genial  helpfulness  that  secured  for 
him  so  unique  a  position.  In  fact,  so  complete  was  his  domination 
that  to  those  outside  it  might  seem  to  have  the  appearance  of 
autocratic  control;  but  those  inside  knew  that  it  was  only  the 
natural  control  that  belongs  to  a  strong  and  helpful  man  in  a 
peculiarly  favorable  position  to  be  of  service. 

Systematic  botany  lends  itself  peculiarly  to  this  kind  of  friendly 
contact,  for  it  involves  much  correspondence  and  exchange  of 
material;  so  that  its  devotees  cannot  work  isolated  from  their 
fellows,  but  must  form  a  great  fraternity.  This  accounts  for  the 
strong  personal  hold  Gray  had  upon  many  whom  he  never  met. 
Such  a  hold  is  not  possible  now,  aside  from  any  peculiar  power 
that  may  have  belonged  to  Gray;  because  several  important 
centers  of  systematic  work  have  been  established,  botanists  have 
become  more  independent,  and  botany  has  become  a  many-sided 
science. 

Associated  with  the  Manual  were  the  various  text-books  of  all 
grades,  from  How  Plants  Grow  to  the  Structural  Botany.  To  say 
that  they  are  marvels  of  clear,  flowing  style  is  only  to  repeat  the 
common  opinion  concerning  them.  They  are  models  of  style  for 
elementary  texts  in  general,  as  well  as  masterly  presentations  of  the 
subject  as  it  was  understood  at  that  time.  The  first  of  the  series 


224         LEADING  AMERICAN  MEN  OF  SCIENCE 

was  the  Elements  of  Botany,  which  appeared  in  1836;  and  the  last 
and  most  important  one,  written  from  the  university  standpoint, 
was  the  Structural  Botany,  published  in  1879.  Very  few  great 
and  hence  much-occupied  investigators  are  willing  to  take  the 
trouble  to  prepare  text-books  of  their  subject,  much  less  elementary 
text-books.  But  Gray  was  also  a  great  educator,  and  his  ambition 
was  to  develop  the  science  of  botany  by  training  the  greatest 
possible  number,  from  the  elementary  schools  to  the  university. 
Never  did  he  lose  interest  in  this  part  of  his  work,  and  for  nearly 
half  a  century  he  taught  not  only  the  teachers  but  also  the  children. 
From  the  text-books,  often  said  to  be  "the  finest  set  of  text-books 
ever  issued  in  the  English  language,"  Gray's  greatest  popular 
reputation  came;  for  the  great  majority  of  Americans  knew  of 
him  as  the  author  of  their  text-book  in  botany  rather  than  as  a 
great  investigator. 

Gray's  work  did  not  end  with  the  organization  of  systematic 
botany  in  America  and  with  teaching  his  science  to  Americans, 
but  he  was  also  conspicuous  as  a  great  critic.  His  reviews  of 
current  work  were  continuous  through  his  long  life,  and  it  seemed 
impossible  that  he  could  read  so  much.  These  reviews  included 
not  only  American  work,  but  also  all  European  work  that  was  im- 
portant. In  fact  for  years  he  was  the  principal  channel  through 
which  foreign  publications  reached  the  majority  of  American 
botanists,  publications  dealing  not  only  with  systematic  botany, 
but  with  all  phases  of  the  science.  Apparently  he  wrote  with  no 
effort;  and  his  graceful,  flowing  style,  with  now  and  then  some 
fine  humor,  was  very  characteristic.  He  recognized  the  responsi- 
bility of  his  position  as  critic,  feeling  that  the  science  and  those 
who  depended  upon  his  opinion  must  be  served.  Hence  his 
reviews  were  not  of  the  kind  that  either  speak  well  of  everything 
or  speak  well  of  nothing;  but  they  were  sharply  discriminating. 
He  was  often  severe,  but  never  ill-natured  or  personal ;  and  always 
contrived  to  find  something  for  commendation.  A  chronological 
collection  of  this  great  series  of  reviews  would  form  a  most  instruc- 
tive commentary  on  the  history  of  botany  for  half  a  century.  An 
incident  related  by  Mr.  Thomas  Meehan  illustrates  Gray's  feeling 


ASA  GRAY  225 

./• 

in  reference  to  his  duty  as  a  critic,  and  explains  how  a  man  with 
such  evident  kindly  feeling  and  consideration  for  all  could  some- 
times seem  so  harsh  in  criticism. 

"Once  a  very  zealous  collector,  to  whom  science  was  under 
many  obligations,  described  and  published  a  large  number  of 
plants  from  imperfect  material,  with  undue  haste,  and  without 
competent  knowledge.  Dr.  Gray  had  to  show  that  really  there 
were  very  few  new  species  among  them,  and  in  so  doing  his  criti- 
cism was  unusually  severe.  In  writing  to  Dr.  Gray  I  ventured  to 
remonstrate  with  him  upon  the  severity  he  had  used.  The  reply 
was,  'In  my  heart  I  would  have  been  more  tender  than  you,  but 
I  cannot  afford  to  be.  I  am,  from  my  present  position  before  the 
world,  a  critic,  and  I  cannot  shrink  from  the  duty  which  such  a 
position  imposes  upon  me.  If  you  were  in  the  position  that  I  am, 
with  a  short  life  and  a  long  task  before  you,  and  just  as  you 
thought  the  way  was  clear  for  progress  some  one  should  dump 
cart-loads  of  rubbish  in  your  path,  and  you  had  to  take  off  your 
coat,  roll  up  your  sleeves,  and  spend  weeks  in  digging  that  rubbish 
away  before  you  could  proceed,  I  should  not  suppose  you  would 
be  a  model  of  amiability. ' " 

This  critical  care  of  his  science  appeared  not  only  in  his  pub- 
lished reviews,  but  also  in  the  more  numerous  private  letters  to 
authors.  After  any  publication,  it  was  the  common  thing  for  the 
author  to  receive  from  Dr.  Gray  some  characteristic  comment, 
very  friendly  but  faithfully  keen;  and  it  always  helped  the  next 
performance.  When  the  Botanical  Gazette  was  established  in 
1875,  the  enterprise  was  encouraged  and  the  name  suggested  by 
Dr.  Gray.  But  he  followed  up  this  responsibility  faithfully,  and 
for  some  time  after  each  issue  the  editor  would  receive  a  letter  full 
of  commendations  or  caustic  comments.  It  was  quite  charac- 
teristic of  the  man  that  when  the  criticism  had  been  unusually 
savage  and  the  editor  was  feeling  that  perhaps  the  journal  had 
better  be  abandoned,  Dr.  Gray  would  send  a  paper  of  his  own 
for  publication. 

Gray's  interest  extended  beyond  the  somewhat  narrow  limits  of 
his  special  work  in  systematic  botany,  and  included  the  general 
philosophical  aspects  of  biology.  One  of  his  most  brilliant  papers 
was  a  discussion  of  the  Relation  of  the  Japanese  Flora  to  That  of 


226          LEADING  AMERICAN  MEN  OF  SCIENCE 

North  America.  The  conclusions  as  to  a  former  arctic  connection 
were  all  the  more  remarkable  since  at  that  time  the  testimony 
from  the  boreal  fossil  flora  was  not  in. 

/  It  was  this  larger  biological  interest  that  compelled  Gray  to  be- 
come the  foremost  expounder  in  this  country  of  Darwin's  theory 
of  natural  selection.  It  was  at  the  opening  of  the  Civil  War  that 
the  notable  discussion  began,  and  perhaps  it  would  have  attracted 
even  larger  public  attention  than  it  did  if  men's  thoughts  had  not 
been  so  engrossed  by  the  terrible  experiences  through  which  the 
country  was  passing.  Gray  was  almost  alone  at  first  in  meeting 
the  skepticism  and  opposition  aroused  by  what  was  soon  called 
Darwinism;  and  his  task  was  all  the  more  difficult  because  of  the 
opposition  of  his  very  influential  colleague  Agassiz.  What  he 
contended  for  was  not  so  much  belief  in  the  theory  of  natural  selec- 
tion, for  he  himself  did  not  accept  it  in  all  its  fulness,  as  for  an 
attitude  of  mind  that  could  recognize  its  bearings  without  preju- 
dice and  could  see  that  it  was  consistent  with  theistic  belief.  Hence 
he  was  its  expounder  rather  than  its  defender.  He  debated  with 
skeptical  scientists  and  unbelieving  theologians;  and  especially 
with  the  latter  antagonists  were  his  breadth  and  keenness  shown. 
All  of  his  scattered  writings  upon  this  subject  were  later  brought 
together  in  a  volume  bearing  the  appropriate  title  Darwiniana. 
It  is  an  admirable  commentary  on  the  theory  of  natural  selection, 
in  which  the  author  now  explains  it  with  wonderful  lucidity,  as  a 
great  teacher;  now  defends  it  against  unjust  attack,  as  a  great 
champion;  now  pierces  the  statements  of  theologians  with  most 
brilliant  logic,  as  a  great  debater;  by  one  means  and  another 
routing  enemies  and  winning  friends.  In  the  midst  of  the  general 
storm  aroused  by  the  Origin  of  Species,  Darwin  himself  learned 
to  rely  upon  the  judgment  and  support  of  Gray,  as  shown  by  their 
correspondence.  In  Darwin's  letters  to  Gray  will  be  found  the 
following  statements: 

"You  never  touch  the  subject  without  making  it  clearer;"  "I 
look  at  it  as  even  more  extraordinary  that  you  never  say  a  word 
or  use  an  epithet  which  does  not  fully  express  my  meaning;" 
"Others  who  perfectly  understand  my  book,  sometimes  use  ex- 


ASA  GRAY  227 

pressions  to  which  I  demur;"  "I  hope  and  almost  believe  that  the 
time  will  come  when  you  will  go  further  in  believing  a  much  larger 
amount  of  modification  of  species  than  you  did  at  first  or  do  now." 

The  contest  involved  a  great  principle,  and  Asa  Gray  should  be 
regarded  as  the  great  and  successful  champion  in  this  country  of 
the  freedom  of  scientific  investigation  from  theological  domination. 

In  1873,  Gray  retired  from  instruction,  to  give  his  undivided 
attention  to  the  preparation  of  the  Synoptical  Flora  and  the 
monographic  studies  connected  with  it.  His  priceless  herbarium 
and  library  had  been  given  to  Harvard  University  on  condition 
that  they  be  housed  in  a  fire-proof  building.  This  building,  in  the 
Botanic  Garden  at  Cambridge,  connected  with  Dr.  Gray's  house, 
his  own  study  being  the  connecting  link  between  the  two,  is  full 
of  associations  for  American  botanists.  Those  who  consulted  the 
herbarium,  and  all  who  published  were  compelled  to  do  this  sooner 
or  later,  will  never  forget  the  rapid  steps  that  now  and  then  issued 
from  the  study  and  hastened  into  the  adjoining  library;  the  oc- 
casional words  of  friendly  greeting;  the  still  more  prized  invitation 
to  the  study;  and  the  genial  hospitality  of  the  home  that  was  open 
to  all  who  loved  plants. 

After  Cambridge  became  a  receiving  center  for  nearly  all  im- 
portant collections  of  North  American  plants,  it  might  be  supposed 
that  Gray  would  be  compelled  to  become  exclusively  a  herbarium 
botanist.  The  pressure  of  important  work  thrust  upon  him  would 
certainly  seem  to  have  justified  it.  But  he  began  botany  in  the 
"open,"  and  he  always  returned  to  it  at  every  opportunity.  His 
visits  to  the  most  interesting  regions  of  the  North  American  flora, 
from  the  "pine  barrens"  of  New  Jersey  and  the  mountains  of 
the  South  Atlantic  states  to  the  Rocky  Mountains,  were  not  only 
the  greatest  delight  to  him,  but  memorable  occasions  to  those 
who  were  fortunate  enough  to  accompany  him.  Like  a  boy  at 
home  during  a  short  vacation,  he  bubbled  over  with  enthusiasm 
and  activity.  The  interesting  plants  were  hailed  with  as  keen  a 
pleasure  as  though  they  were  new;  perhaps  with  even  greater 
pleasure  because  they  were  old  and  prized  friends.  His  light  and 
wiry  body  kept  pace  with  his  enthusiasm,  and  to  be  with  him  for 


228          LEADING  AMERICAN  MEN  OF  SCIENCE 

a  day's  tramp  tried  the  endurance  of  the  most  experienced  walkers. 
One  could  not  be  with  him  long  in  the  field  without  catching  the 
contagion  and  finding  himself  running  about  as  eagerly  as  a  boy 
after  butterflies. 

He  was  preeminently  a  companionable  man,  delighting  in  his 
friends,  very  vivacious,  and  always  looking  at  his  experiences 
with  the  eyes  of  fresh  youthfulness,  as  though  his  whole  business 
was  to  have  a  good  time.  From  the  hard  strain  of  work  he  always 
rebounded  joyfully,  never  retaining  the  air  of  abstraction  or  weari- 
ness. This  secured  for  him  the  warm  friendship  of  Cambridge 
associates  and  of  those  whom  he  met  in  his  travels;  and  his  presence 
always  brought  good  cheer. 

In  1848  Dr.  Gray  was  married  to  Jane  L.  Loring,  the  daughter 
of  Charles  Greely  Loring,  a  lawyer  in  Boston.  In  all  of  his  travels 
Mrs.  Gray  was  his  constant  companion,  and  established  that  fa- 
miliarity with  his  work  and  his  associates  that  made  her  a  constant 
help  and  delight.  Their  home  life  was  charming,  and  although 
childless,  Dr.  Gray  was  passionately  fond  of  children,  always  greet- 
ing them  cordially,  stopping  to  talk  with  them,  and  at  times  romp- 
ing with  them  in  boyish  abandon. 

Gray's  reading  was  always  omnivorous,  and  this,  after  all,  he 
says,  was  the  larger  part  of  his  education.  In  his  early  boyhood 
there  was  no  great  choice,  and  so  everything  was  read  that  could 
be  obtained.  He  says,  "  History  I  rather  took  to,  but  especially 
voyages  and  travels  were  my  delight."  At  first  very  few  novels 
were  available,  but  an  introduction  to  the  Waverley  novels  made 
Scott  his  life-long  favorite.  Mrs.  Gray,  in  her  Letters  of  Asa 
Gray,  writes: 

"In  later  life  the  novels  were  always  saved  for  long  journeys. 
The  novel  of  the  day  was  picked  out,  and  one  pleasure  of  a  long 
day's  ride  in  the  train  was  to  sit  by  his  side  and  enjoy  his  pleasure 
at  the  good  things.  The  glee  and  delight  with  which  he  read 
Hawthorne,  especially  the  Wonder-Book  and  Tanglewood  Tales, 
make  days  to  remember.  So  he  read  George  Eliot,  and  Adam 
Bede  carried  him  happily  through  a  fit  of  the  toothache.  Scott 
always  remained  the  prime  favorite,  and  his  last  day  of  reading, 
when  the  final  illness  was  stealing  so  unexpectedly  and  insidiously 


ASA  GRAY  229 

on,  was  spent  over  The  Monastery,  which  he  had  been  planning 
to  read  on  his  homeward  voyage  in  1887." 

Gray  was  of  Irish  ancestry,  his  great-great-grandfather  having 
emigrated  from  Ireland  to  Massachusetts  as  a  member  of  a  Scotch- 
Irish  colony  composed  of  rigid  Presbyterians,  who  desired  to 
leave  Ireland  to  escape  various  persecutions.  This  religious  inheri- 
tance had  not  faded  out  when  it  reached  Gray,  and  although  to 
some  at  the  time  he  seemed  far  from  orthodox  in  his  champion- 
ship of  Darwin,  he  was  always  a  theistic  evolutionist.  In  the 
preface  to  Darwiniana  he  makes  the  following  distinct  statement 
of  his  religious  views: 

"As  to  the  natural  theological  questions  which  are  here  through- 
out brought  into  what  most  naturalists,  and  some  other  readers, 
may  deem  undue  prominence,  there  are  many  who  may  be  in- 
terested to  know  how  these  increasingly  prevalent  views  and  their 
tendencies  are  regarded  by  one  who  is  scientifically,  and  in  his 
own  fashion,  a  Darwinian,  philosophically  a  convinced  theist,  and 
religiously  an  acceptor  of  the  '  creed  commonly  called  the  Nicene,' 
as  the  exponent  of  the  Christian  faith." 

A  glimpse  of  the  man  and  the  estimate  of  him  by  his  colleagues 
may  be  obtained  from  an  extract  taken  from  a  letter  written  by 
his  friend  Dean  Church  to  Mrs.  Gray. 

"There  is  a  special  cachet  in  all  Dr.  Gray's  papers,  great  and 
small,  which  is  his  own,  and  which  seems  to  me  to  distinguish 
him  from  even  his  more  famous  contemporaries.  There  is  the 
scientific  spirit  in  it,  but  firm,  imaginative,  fearless,  cautious,  with 
large  horizons,  and  very  attentive  and  careful  to  objections  and 
qualifications;  and  there  is  besides,  what  is  so  often  wanting  in 
scientific  writing,  ^  fry.™?"  spirit,  always  remembering  that, 
besides  facts  and  laws,  there  are  souls  and  characters  over  against 
them,  of  as  great  account  as  they,  in  whose  mirrors  they  are  re- 
flected, whom  they  excite  and  delight,  and  without  whose  interest 
they  would  be  blanks.  The  combination  comes  out  in  his  great 
generalizations,  in  the  bold  and  yet  considerate  way  in  which  he 
deals  with  Darwin's  ideas,  and  in  the  notices  of  so  many  of  his 
scientific  friends,  whom  we  feel  that  he  was  interested  in  as  men, 
and  not  only  as  scientific  inquirers.  The  sweetness  and  charity, 
which  we  remember  so  well  in  living  converse,  is  always  on  the 


230         LEADING  AMERICAN  MEN  OF  SCIENCE 

lookout  for  some  pleasant  feature  in  the  people  of  whom  he  writes, 
and  to  give  kindliness  and  equity  to  his  judgment. 

"And  what  a  life  of  labors  it  was!  I  am  perfectly  aghast  at  the 
amoiillf  61  grinding  work  of  whicK  these  papers  are  the  indirect 
evidence.  .  .  . 

"For  they  [his  religious  views]  were  a  most  characteristic  part 
of  the  man,  and  the  seriousness  and  earnest  conviction  with  which 
he  let  them  be  known  had,  I  am  convinced,  a  most  wholesome 
effect  on  the  development  of  the  great  scientific  theory  in  which 
he  was  so  much  interested.  It  took  off  a  great  deal  of  the  theo- 
logical edge,  which  was  its  danger,  both  to  those  who  upheld  and 
those  who  opposed  it.  I  am  sure  things  would  have  gone  more 
crossly  and  unreasonably,  if  his  combination  of  fearless  religion 
and  clearness  of  mind,  and  wise  love  of  truth,  had  not  told  on  the 
controversy." 

On  November  18,  1885,  Professor  Gray's  seventy-fifth  birthday, 
there  was  an  outpouring  of  expressions  of  admiration  and  affec- 
tion from  American  botanists  that  was  remarkable.  At  the  sugges- 
tion of  the  editors  of  the  Botanical  Gazette,  the  expression  took  the 
form  of  a  silver  memorial  vase  and  personal  letters  of  congratula- 
tion. The  responses  were  so  prompt  and  generous  that  the  whole 
movement  was  really  spontaneous,  waiting  only  for  the  opportu- 
nity. The  legend  upon  the  vase  read 

"  1810  November  eighteenth  1885 

Asa  Gray 
in  token  of  the  universal  esteem  of  American  botanists" 

Beautifully  wrought  upon  the  vase  were  appropriate  representa- 
tives of  the  North  American  flora;  and  it  was  a  keen  pleasure  to 
see  with  what  almost  boyish  delight  the  venerable  but  ever  youth- 
ful botanist  recognized  and  named  them.  There  were  also  greet- 
ings from  1 80  American  botanists;  in  fact  from  all  who  could  be 
notified  of  the  anniversary;  and  James  Russell  Lowell  contributed 
the  following  sentiment: 

"Just  Fate,  prolong  his  life  well-spent 
Whose  indefatigable  hours 
Have  been  as  gaily  innocent 
And  fragrant  as  his  flowers." 


ASA  GRAY  231 

Professor  Gray's  published  reply  to  this  overwhelming  tribute 
was  so  characteristic  in  sentiment  and  in  style  that  it  must  be 
repeated.  Addressing  the  American  botanists  he  said: 

"  As  I  am  quite  unable  to  convey  to  you  in  words  any  adequate 
idea  of  the  gratification  I  received,  on  the  morning  of  the  i8th. 
inst.,  from  the  wealth  of  congratulations  and  expressions  of  es- 
teem and  affection  which  welcomed  my  75th  birthday,  I  can  do 
no  more  than  to  render  to  each  and  all  my  heartiest  thanks. 
Among  fellow-botanists,  more  pleasantly  connected  than  in  any 
other  pursuit  by  mutual  giving  and  receiving,  some  recognition 
of  a  rather  uncommon  anniversary  might  naturally  be  expected. 
But  this  full  flood  of  benediction,  from  the  whole  length  and 
breadth  of  the  land,  whose  flora  is  a  common  study  and  a  com- 
mon delight,  was  as  unexpected  as  it  is  touching  and  memorable. 
Equally  so  is  the  exquisite  vase  which  accompanied  the  messages 
of  congratulation  and  is  to  commemorate  them,  and  upon  which 
not  a  few  of  the  flowers  associated  with  my  name  or  with  my 
special  studies  are  so  deftly  wrought  by  art  that  one  may  almost 
say  *  the  art  itself  is  nature/  .  .  ." 

A  little  more  than  two  years  after  this  notable  anniversary,  on 
January  30,  1888,  Asa  Gray  died,  stricken  with  paralysis;  and  it 
was  the  common  voice  of  American  botanists  that  they  had  lost 
their  leader  and  friend. 


ff 


I 


JAMES  DWIGHT  DANA 

GEOLOGIST 

1813-1895 
BY  WILLIAM  NORTH  RICE 

JAMES  DWIGHT  DANA  l  was  born  in  Utica,  New  York,  Feb- 
ruary 12,  1813.  He  was  a  descendant  of  Richard  Dana,  who  is  be- 
lieved to  have  emigrated  from  England  to  Massachusetts  about 
1640.  Among  the  numerous  posterity  of  Richard  Dana  are  in- 
cluded a  remarkably  large  number  of  men  of  eminent  achievement 
in  science,  literature,  and  politics,  in  the  ministry  and  the  law.2 
The  history  of  the  family  prior  to  the  emigration  of  Richard  Dana 
is  uncertain.  It  appears  probable  that  the  family  name  is  of  Italian 
origin,  and  that  some  ancestor  of  Richard  emigrated  from  Italy 

1  In  the  preparation  of  this  sketch,  the  principal  sources  (aside  from  per- 
sonal memories  of  a  revered  teacher  and  friend,  and  from  Professor  Dana's 
own  works)  have  been  the  biography  by  President  Oilman  (The  Life  of 
James  Dwight  Dana,  Scientific  Explorer,  Mineralogist,  Geologist,  Zoologist. 
New  York  and  London,  1899),  and  the  appreciative  articles  by  Professors  E. 
S.  Dana  (American  Journal  of  Science,  series  3,  vol.  49,  pp.  329-356),  Le- 
Conte  (Bulletin  of  the  Geological  Society  of  America,  vol.  7,  pp.  461-479), 
Williams  (Journal  of  Geology,  vol.  3,  pp.  601-621),  Farrington  (Journal  of 
Geology,  vol.  3,  pp.  335-340),  and  Beecher  (American  Geologist,  vol.  17, 
pp.  1-16). 

2  Among  the  most  eminent  descendants  of  Richard  Dana  may  be  men- 
tioned Francis  Dana,  member  of  the  Continental  Congress,  Chief  Justice  of 
Massachusetts;  Richard  Henry  Dana,  poet;  Richard  Henry  Dana,  Jr.,  jurist; 
Samuel  Whittlesey  Dana,  United  States  Senator  from  Connecticut;  John 
Winchester  Dana,  Governor  of  Maine;  James  Freeman  Dana,  chemist  and 
mineralogist;  Samuel  Luther  Dana,  chemist;  Charles  Anderson  Dana,  ed- 
itor, Assistant  Secretary  of  War. 

233 


234          LEADING  AMERICAN  MEN  OF  SCIENCE 

to  England.  A  number  of  Italians  bearing  the  name  of  Dana 
have  had  honorable  careers  in  various  intellectual  professions. 
The  intense  vivacity  of  mind  and  body  which  always  characterized 
Professor  Dana  may  have  been  due  in  some  degree  to  his  inherit- 
ance from  the  sunny  land  of  Italy. 

The  parents  of  James  Dwight  Dana  were  intelligent,  energetic, 
and  earnestly  religious  people,  and  the  atmosphere  of  the  home 
swas  thoroughly  wholesome.  " Honesty,  virtue  and  industry  seem 
jdmost  to  be  our  natural  inheritance,"  said  Professor  Dana  in 
after  years,  in  grateful  memory  of  the  influences  under  which  he 
and  his  nine  brothers  and  sisters  had  been  reared.  There  is, 
however,  no  evidence  that  the  associations  of  his  childhood  home 
tended  to  inspire  or  cultivate  an  interest  in  scientific  investiga- 
tion. One  of  his  aunts,  who  was  a  member  of  the  household  in 
which  his  boyhood  was  passed,  describes  him  as  "a  merry  boy, 
always  ready  for  a  game  of  romps."  She  informs  us  that  he 
began  collecting  specimens  at  an  early  age,  and  that  "he  had  quite 
a  cabinet  before  he  was  ten  years  old."  How  much  significance 
belongs  to  these  early  efforts,  it  is  impossible  to  estimate. 

The  earliest  influence  tending  to  awaken  into  activity  his  scien- 
tific taste  and  talent  was  found  in  an  academy  which  had  been 
established  in  Utica  by  Charles  Bartlett.  The  science  teacher  in 
that  school,  Fay  Edgerton,  was  a  graduate  of  Rensselaer  Poly- 
technic Institute,  and  was  far  in  advance  of  his  time  in  his  methods 
of  scientific  instruction.  His  students  were  taught  in  large  degree 
by  laboratory  methods.  Especially  instructive  and  inspiring 
were  his  short  field  excursions  in  term  time,  and  his  longer  tours 
with  his  students  in  the  summer  vacations,  in  which  they  collected 
minerals,  fossils,  plants,  etc.,  and  acquired  the  mental  habitudes 
which  come  from  first-hand  contact  with  nature.  Mr.  Edgerton 
was  succeeded  in  his  position  by  Asa  Gray,  the  illustrious  botanist. 
It  does  not  appear,  however,  that  Dana  was  ever  a  pupil  of  Gray,1 

1  According  to  M.  M.  Bagg  (quoted  by  Oilman,  p.  16),  Gray  commenced 
teaching  in  Utica  in  1829;  but  a  letter  of  Gray  to  Torrey  (Letters  of  Asa 
Cray,  p.  37)  shows  that  Gray's  work  in  Utica  did  not  begin  till  1832.  This 
was  after  Dana  had  entered  college. 


JAMES  DWIGHT  DANA  235 

though  their  friendship  and  helpful  mutual  influence  certainly 
commenced  early  in  life. 

In  1830,  Dana  entered  the  Sophomore  Class  of  Yale  College, 
and  he  was  duly  graduated  from  that  institution  in  1833.  His 
standing  in  general  scholarship  was  creditable  though  not  brilliant. 
Those  were  the  days  of  the  fixed  curriculum  in  which  the  staples 
were  classics  and  mathematics.  Dana's  preparation  in  the  classics 
had  been  defective,  and  in  college  he  did  not  distinguish  him- 
self in  that  department.  He  attained,  however,  a  high  grade  in 
mathematics;  and  it  is  needless  to  say  that  he  made  the  most  of 
the  rather  scanty  opportunities  which  an  American  college  then 
afforded  for  the  study  of  the  sciences  of  nature.  Undoubtedly  the 
strongest  influence  in  his  college  life  towards  the  shaping  of  his 
future  career  was  that  of  the  elder  Benjamin  Silliman,  whose 
pioneer  work  in  chemistry  and  geology  was  already  giving  renown 
to  Yale  College. 

In  the  spring  of  1833,  Dana  received  an  appointment  as  school- 
master in  the  navy.  He  was  ordered  to  report  June  15,  at  Nor- 
folk, Virginia,  for  service  on  the  U.  S.  ship  Delaware,  in  a  cruise 
in  the  Mediterranean.  The  school  for  the  instruction  of  midship- 
men on  the  ship  was  presided  over  by  the  chaplain.  Dana's 
work  was  that  of  instructor  in  mathematics.  The  routine  duties 
of  his  position  left  him  much  leisure,  and  he  devoted  a  large  por- 
tion of  his  time  to  the  study  of  crystallography.  He  had  oppor- 
tunities for  observation  of  the  geology  of  various  localities  on  the 
Mediterranean  shores.  The  earliest  of  his  long  series  of  scientific 
publications  was  a  letter  to  Professor  Silliman,  describing  Vesuvius 
as  it  appeared  in  July,  1834,  which  was  published  in  the  American 
Journal  of  Science  in  the  following  year.  He  returned  to  this 
country  near  the  end  of  the  year  1834,  and  retired  from  the  naval 
service. 

The  return  from  the  Mediterranean  cruise  was  the  beginning 
of  a  period  of  perplexity.  Already  young  Dana  clearly  heard  the 
inward  call  to  a  distinctively  scientific  career,  but  in  those  days 
the  opportunities  to  secure  a  livelihood  in  such  a  career  were  far 
less  abundant  than  at  present.  A  great  encouragement  to  the 


236          LEADING  AMERICAN  MEN  OF  SCIENCE 

aspirations  of  the  young  scientist  was  his  appointment  as  assist- 
ant to  Professor  Silliman  in  1836.    The  routine  duties  of  the  posi 
tion  occupied  but  little  time.    He  had  the  benefit  of  stimulating 
association  with  other  scientific  men,  and  the  use  of  the  library  and 
the  already  respectable  mineralogical  collection  of  the  college. 

His  studies  at  this  period  were  chiefly  in  mineralogy;  and  in 
1837  appeared  the  first  of  his  great  scientific  works,  the  System 
of  Mineralogy.  It  is  certainly  remarkable  that  a  book  represent- 
ing so  large  an  amount  of  research  should  have  been  produced  by 
a  man  only  twenty-four  years  old,  and  only  four  years  out  of 
college.  Successive  editions  of  the  work  were  published  in  1844, 
1850,  1854,  and  1868.  In  the  fifth  edition  Professor  Dana  had 
the  assistance  of  Professor  George  J.  Brush.  That  edition  in- 
cluded only  descriptive  mineralogy,  but  was  more  voluminous 
than  the  previous  editions  which  had  included  crystallography 
also.  A  sixth  edition,  completely  rewritten  by  Professor  Edward 
S.  Dana,  the  son  of  James  D.  Dana,  was  published  in  1892. 

The  four  years  from  the  summer  of  1838  to  that  of  1842  stand 
strongly  in  contrast  with  the  remainder  of  Professor  Dana's  career. 
In  those  years  he  had  an  experience  of  the  adventures,  the  hard- 
ships, and  perils,  and  no  less  of  the  joys,  of  the  explorer  of  unknown 
lands  and  seas.  The  remainder  of  his  life  was  in  the  main  the 
quiet  and  uneventful  life  of  the  student.  To  him,  as  to  his  great 
contemporary,  Charles  Darwin,  a  period  of  world-wide  travel, 
coming  early  in  his  career,  with  its  opportunities  of  seeing  most 
varied  aspects  of  nature  and  life,  was  doubtless  of  immense  value 
in  storing  his  memory  with  material  for  scientific  thought,  and  in 
leading  him  to  broad  vjfiw-«j^gfjx)smic jprf^ggggiv  Most  of  all  to  a 
geologist  is  wide  and  varied  travel  an  experience  of  inestimable 
importance. 

The  United  States  Exploring  Expedition,  under  the  command 
of  Lieutenant  (afterwards  Admiral)  Charles  Wilkes,  sailed  from 
Norfolk,  Virginia,  August  18,  1838.  The  expedition  consisted  of 
six  vessels — the  Vincennes,  the  Peacock,  the  Porpoise,  the  Relief, 
the  Sea-gull,  and  the  Flying-fish.  Of  these,  the  first  two  were 
sloops-of-war,  and  were  the  principal  vessels  of  the  little  squadron. 


JAMES  DWIGHT  DANA  237 

The  last  two  were  pilot  boats.  Asa  Gray  had  been  appointed  Bot- 
anist of  the  expedition,  and  it  was  largely  through  his  influence  that 
Dana  was  induced  to  join  the  scientific  staff  as  Mineralogist  and 
Geologist.  The  lifelong  friendship  of  these  two  great  men,  which 
was  so  full  of  inspiration  to  both  in  their  long  scientific  careers, 
had  already  begun.  Various  causes,  however,  led  Gray  to  resign 
his  position  before  the  departure  of  the  expedition.  The  limits  of 
this  article  will  not  allow  any  consideration  of  Wilkes'  memorable 
voyage  along  the  coast  of  the  Antarctic  continent,  of  the  important 
work  done  by  the  naval  officers  of  the  expedition  in  charting  seas 
and  islands  previously  unknown,  or  even  of  the  work  of  the  other 
naturalists.  Only  an  outline  can  be  given  of  the  journeys,  explo- 
rations, and  experiences  in  which  Dana  himself  had  a  share.  At 
the  start,  Dana  was  assigned  to  the  Peacock,  and  he  shared  the 
fortunes  of  that  vessel  most  of  the  time  until  the  shipwreck  which 
ended  her  career. 

The  expedition  crossed  the  Atlantic  to  Madeira,  where  Dana 
had  an  opportunity  for  some  study  of  the  geology  of  the  island. 
Then  a  short  visit  was  paid  to  the  Cape  Verde  Islands,  after 
which  the  squadron  sailed  to  Rio  Janeiro,  where  it  remained  about 
six  weeks.  The  long  stay  at  Rio  was  for  the  purpose  of  making 
repairs  and  taking  additional  supplies.  After  leaving  Rio,  the 
voyagers  doubled  Cape  Horn, 'and  the  ships  assembled  in  Orange 
Harbor  on  the  west  side  of  Nassau  Bay.  From  this  point  some 
of  the  ships  sailed  southward  for  exploration  in  the  Antarctic 
regions,  while  the  Relief,  to  which  Dana  had  been  transferred, 
was  ordered  to  a  cruise  in  the  Strait  of  Magellan.  Unfavorable 
and  violent  winds  baffled  for  many  days  the  attempt  to  enter  the 
strait.  The  troubles  of  this  part  of  the  expedition  culminated  in 
a  terrific  storm  of  three  days'  duration,  in  which  the  ship  lost  all 
but  one  of  her  anchors  and  very  narrowly  escaped  shipwreck.  The 
Relief  then  sailed  to  Valparaiso,  and  in  the  course  of  a  few  weeks 
the  Vincennes  and  the  Peacock  arrived  at  the  same  port.  Dana 
and  the  other  naturalists  improved  the  opportunity  to  make  some 
excursions  into  the  Chilian  Andes.  From  Valparaiso  the  squadron 
proceeded  northward  to  Callao,  and  then  sailed  westward  across 


238          LEADING  AMERICAN  MEN  OF  SCIENCE 

the  Pacific  in  the  summer  of  1839.  The  main  work  of  the  expedi- 
tion— the  exploration  and  charting  of  the  Polynesian  archipela- 
goes— was  now  to  begin.  They  reached  first  the  Paumotu  or  Low 
Archipelago,  where  Dana  had  his  first  introduction  to  the  problems 
of  the  coral  islands.  Next,  Tahiti  was  visited,  where  Dana  and 
others  ascended  Mount  Aorai,  and  made  important  geological 
observations.  After  a  visit  to  the  Samoan  Islands,  the  expedition 
proceeded  to  Sydney,  Australia,  where  they  arrived  about  the 
first  of  December.  From  this  point  Wilkes  sailed  southward  with 
the  Vincennes,  the  Peacock,  and  the  Porpoise,  and  on  January  16, 
1840,  discovered  the  Antarctic  Continent — the  most  important 
geographical  result  achieved  by  the  expedition.  When  the  navi- 
gators started  on  the  Antarctic  cruise,  the  naturalists  were  left  at 
Sydney.  After  some  weeks  spent  in  the  study  of  the  geology  and 
natural  history  of  Australia,  they  proceeded  to  New  Zealand,  where 
the  expedition  reassembled  in  the  spring  of  1840.  The  Tonga 
and  Fiji  groups  of  islands  were  then  explored.  The  murder  of  two 
of  the  officers  of  the  expedition  by  the  then  savage  Fijians  was  one 
of  the  tragedies  of  the  voyage.  In  the  early  autumn  of  that  year  the 
explorers  reached  the  Hawaiian  Islands,  where  already  the  labors 
of  American  missionaries  had  been  crowned  by  the  development 
of  a  Christian  civilization.  The  magnificent  volcanoes  of  these 
islands  afforded  Dana  the  material  for  most  important  and  fruitful 
study.  In  December,  the  Peacock,  to  which  Dana  was  again 
attached,  left  Oahu  on  a  long  cruise  in  the  Pacific,  in  which  nu- 
merous groups  of  islands  were  visited.  The  ship  narrowly  escaped 
wreck  by  grounding  on  a  reef  among  the  Kingsmill  Islands,  whose 
cannibal  inhabitants  would  have  been  far  from  hospitable  to 
shipwrecked  mariners.  The  cruise  actually  ended  in  the  wreck 
and  total  destruction  of  the  ship  on  the  bar  of  the  Columbia 
River,  July  18,  1841.  The  lives  of  all  on  board  were  saved,  but 
an  important  part  of  the  scientific  collections  of  the  expedition 
was  lost.  A  party  of  which  Dana  was  a  member  then  proceeded 
up  the  Willamette  River  and  down  the  Sacramento  to  San  Fran- 
cisco, then  a  village  of  a  few  shanties.  In  October  of  that  year  the 
surviving  vessels  of  the  expedition  assembled  at  San  Francisco; 


JAMES  DWIGHT  DANA  239 

and  a  brig,  the  Oregon,  was  purchased  to  take  the  place  of  the 
Peacock.  The  squadron  returned  to  the  Hawaiian  Islands  for 
supplies.  After  some  study  of  the  Kuroshiwo,  or  Japanese 
Current,  the  expedition  made  a  short  visit  to  the  Philippine 
Islands,  then  proceeded  to  Singapore,  and  returned  home  by  way 
of  the  Cape  of  Good  Hope,  visiting  on  the  way  Cape  Town  and 
Saint  Helena.  The  arrival  at  New  York  was  in  June,  1842. 

In  the  next  few  years  Dana's  task  was  the  preparation  of  reports 
of  the  scientific  work  of  the  expedition.  He  had  undertaken,  in 
the  first  organization  of  the  scientific  staff,  the  mineralogy  and 
geology;  but,  in  consequence  of  the  retirement  of  one  of  the  party 
at  the  beginning,  and  of  another  during  the  course  of  the  expedi- 
tion, he  was  led  to  undertake  also  two  parts  of  the  zoology,  viz., 
the  study  of  the  Crustacea  and  that  of  the  corals.  The  report  on 
Zoophytes  appeared  in  1846,  that  on  Geology  in  1849,  the  first 
part  of  the  report  on  Crustacea  in  1852,  and  the  remainder  in 
1854.  The  reports  were  issued  in  magnificent  style,  that  on 
Crustacea  forming  two  great  quarto  volumes,  the  others  each  one 
volume,  and  each  report  being  accompanied  by  a  folio  atlas.  It 
is,  however,  only  in  a  very  accommodated  sense  of  the  word  that 
the  scientific  reports  of  the  expedition  can  be  said  to  have  been 
published.  The  number  of  copies  authorized  by  Congress  to  be 
printed  was  so  small  that  they  have  been  from  the  beginning 
inaccessible  to  most  of  the  students  who  would  have  profited  by 
their  use,  only  a  very  few  of  the  largest  libraries  possessing  com- 
plete or  nearly  complete  sets.  This  absurd  policy  contrasts 
strongly  with  the  enlightened  liberality  with  which  the  more  recent 
scientific  publications  of  the  United  States  government  have  been 
distributed.  For  about  two  years  after  the  return  of  the  expedi- 
tion, Dana  worked  in  Washington,  but  in  1844  he  returned  to 
New  Haven,  where  he  resided  until  his  death. 

He  married,  June  5,  1844,  Henrietta  Silliman,  a  daughter  of  his 
teacher  and  friend,  Benjamin  Silliman.  The  home  life  of  more 
than  half  a  century  which  thus  began  was  most  happy.  Mrs. 
Dana  and  four  children  survived  him.  The  oldest  son,  Professor 
Edward  Salisbury  Dana,  of  Yale  University,  is  a  distinguished 


240          LEADING  AMERICAN  MEN  OF  SCIENCE 

mineralogist,  and  was  the  editor — perhaps  it  should  rather  be  said, 
the  author — of  the  last  edition  of  the  System  of  Mineralogy. 

In  1846,  Professor  Dana  became  associated  with  his  former 
teacher,  Professor  Silliman,  as  one  of  the  editors  of  the  American 
Journal  of  Science.  The  history  of  that  periodical  is  indeed  a 
remarkable  one.  Founded  by  the  elder  Silliman  in  1818,  it  has 
continued  ever  since  under  the  editorial  charge  of  a  single  family, 
though  a  considerable  number  of  the  most  eminent  scientific  men 
of  the  country  have  been  for  longer  or  shorter  periods  associate 
editors.  Professor  J.  D.  Dana  was  the  chief  editor  from  1871 
until  his  death.  His  son,  Professor  E.  S.  Dana,  succeeded  him. 
In  the  earlier  years  the  journal  was  entitled  American  Journal  of 
Science  and  Arts.  Gradually  its  scope  came  to  be  restricted  to 
pure  science,  and  in  1880  the  words,  "and  arts,"  were  dropped 
from  the  title.  The  successive  volumes  of  the  Journal  form  a  his- 
tory of  American  scientific  work  for  more  than  three-quarters  of 
a  century.  The  intelligence  and  liberality  and  the  thoroughly  non- 
partisan  spirit  with  which  it  has  been  conducted,  have  made  it  a 
most  potent  and  a  most  salutary  influence  in  American  science. 

In  1850  Dana  was  elected  Silliman  Professor  of  Natural  His- 
tory in  Yale  College,  and  he  remained  a  member  of  the  faculty 
of  that  institution  until  his  death.  He  did  not,  however,  enter 
upon  the  work  of  teaching  until  the  college  year  1855-56,  being 
occupied  in  the  meantime  in  the  preparation  of  the  reports  of  the 
Exploring  Expedition.  In  1864,  his  title  was  changed  from  Pro- 
fessor of  Natural  History  to  Professor  of  Geology  and  Mineralogy. 
He  was  actively  engaged  in  the  work  of  teaching  (with  short 
interruptions  due  to  ill  health)  until  1890.  In  1894  he  was  form- 
ally recognized  as  Professor  emeritus.  During  his  term  of  service 
the  little  college  of  the  middle  of  the  century  grew  into  the  great 
university  of  the  close  of  the  century.  He  was  influential  in  the  or- 
ganization of  the  Sheffield  Scientific  School,  though  his  own  teach- 
ing was  always  chiefly,  and  most  of  the  time  exclusively,  in  the 
college  proper. 

Professor  Dana's  clearness  of  .^exposition,  his  enthusiasm  for, 
his  subject,  andL&is  genial  spirit  made  him  an  inspiring  teacher. 


JAMES  DWIGHT  DANA  241 

His  field  excursions  with  his  classes  are  gratefully  remembered 
by  multitudes  of  students  whose  interest  in  geology  was  merely 
incidental.  The  small  number  of  advanced  students  who  were 
destined  to  be  themselves  geologists,  came  to  know  more  intimately 
the  mind  and  heart  of  their  master,  and  cherish  his  memory  with 
reverent  love. 

A  certain  amount  of  teaching  is  undoubtedly  a  help  to  the  inves- 
tigator. The  work  of  exposition  is  an  aid  to  clear  thinking.  The 
human  interest  of  imparting  knowledge  and  awakening  the  intel- 
lectual life  of  others  gives  a  new  fervor  to  one's  own  intellectual 
life  and  a  new  zest  to  the  work  of  acquiring  knowledge.  It  is, 
however,  the  misfortune  of  many  teachers  to  be  so  overloaded 
with  routine  duties  as  to  have  no  time  for  the  work  of  investiga- 
tion, of  which  they  might  otherwise  be  capable.  It  was  the  good 
fortune  of  Professor  Dana  to  have  enough  of  teaching  and  not 
too  much.  His  teaching  made  him  greater  as  an  investigator, 
and  left  him  time  for  investigation. 

The  career  of  Professor  Dana  reminds  us  in  various  ways  of 
that  of  Darwin.  In  the  great  duration  of  productive  activity,  in 
the  number  and  variety  of  the  subjects  which  engaged  their  atten- 
tion, in  the  adventurous  world-wide  exploration  at  the  beginning  of 
the  career  of  each,  and  the  half-century  of  peaceful  home  life  that 
followed,  the  two  careers  were  much  alike.  The  experience  of 
the  two  great  scientists  was  alike  also  in  the  fact  of  impaired 
health,  and  of  pathetic  struggle  to  husband  a  scanty  capital  of 
physical  vigor  and  endurance  so  as  to  make  it  yield  the  largest 
possible  income  of  intellectual  achievement.  When  about  forty- 
five  years  of  age,  Dana  found  his  health  showing  signs  of  break- 
down from  the  effects  of  overwork.  In  1859-60  he  was  compelled 
to  take  a  year  of  rest,  which  was  spent  in  travel  in  Europe.  The 
months  of  travel  brought  only  partial  restoration  o£  health,  and 
he  was  not  able  to  resume  his  college  duties  till  1862.  In  Decem- 
ber of  that  year  he  wrote  to  Darwin:  "I  have  worked  to  great 
disadvantage,  from  one  to  three  hours  a  day,  and  often  not  at  all. 
An  hour's  intercourse  with  the  students  in  the  lecture-room  is  a 
day's  work  for  me."  The  two  illustrious  sufferers  could  well 


242          LEADING  AMERICAN  MEN  OF  SCIENCE 

sympathize  with  each  other.  Professor  Dana  was  compelled  to 
drop  his  college  work,  for  longer  or  shorter  periods,  in  1869, 
1874,  and  1880,  and  in  1890  he  finally  relinquished  the  work  of 
teaching.  All  through  the  last  four  decades  of  his  life  he  worked 
under  the  oppressive  limitations  of  nervous  exhaustion.  He  con- 
scientiously avoided  all  social  excitements,  very  rarely  attending 
even  the  meetings  of  scientific  associations.  By  thorough  self- 
control,  by  careful  regimen  as  regards  sleep  and  exercise,  by  the 
conscientious  economizing  of  the  short  working  periods  which  his 
weary  head  could  bear,  and  by  the  watchful  care  of  his  wife,  he 
was  enabled  to  keep  up  his  intellectual  activity  and  productiveness 
beyond  the  age  of  four-score. 

In  1862  was  published  the  book  which  has  probably  had,  on  the 
whole,  a  larger  influence  on  the  general  intellectual  life  of  the 
world  than  any  other  of  Dana's  writings — the  Manual  of  Geol- 
ogy. Later  editions  of  this  work  were  published  in  1871,  1880, 
and  1895.  The  fourth  edition  was  the  last  important  labor  of  his 
life,  appearing  only  a  few  weeks  before  his  death.  In  1864,  Dana 
published  a  smaller  book  entitled,  Text-book  of  Geology,  of  which 
several  later  editions  have  been  published,  and  which  has  been 
very  widely  used  in  the  colleges  and  high  schools  of  this  country. 

In  1872  was  published  Corals  and  Coral  Islands — an  elegantly 
illustrated  book,  in  which  were  presented  in  semi-popular  form 
some  of  the  results  of  Dana's  work  in  the  Exploring  Expedition. 
A  second  edition  of  this  work  was  published  in  1890. 

In  the  summer  of  1887,  Dana  visited  again  the  Hawaiian  vol- 
canoes, which  he  had  first  studied  almost  a  half-century  before. 
Great  changes  in  means  of  communication  and  in  the  condition  of 
the  Hawaiian  Islands  had  taken  place  since  1840,  and  the  journey 
was  a  far  easier  one  than  at  the  earlier  date.  It  was  nevertheless 
somewhat  of  an  adventure  for  a  man  seventy-four  years  of  age. 

In  1890  was  published  Characteristics  of  Volcanoes.  In  this 
work  the  Hawaiian  volcanoes  are  very  fully  described,  and  the 
general  theory  of  vulcanism  is  discussed.  In  addition  to  the  studies 
of  the  Hawaiian  Islands  in  1840  and  in  1887,  Dana  had  seen  in 
his  circumnavigation  of  the  globe  and  in  his  European  tours  a 


JAMES  DWIGHT  DANA  243 

great  variety  of  volcanic  phenomena.  The  book  was  the  fruit  of 
manifold  observation  and  mature  thought. 

His  intellectual  activity  and  clearness  of  thought  continued  to 
the  very  end  of  his  life.  In  the  last  months  he  corrected  the  proofs 
of  the  fourth  edition  of  the  Manual  of  Geology — the  noblest  of 
all  his  works.  He  had  commenced  a  revision  of  the  Text-book 
of  Geology,  but  the  completion  of  that  work  was  reserved  for  the 
hand  of  a  friend  and  pupil.  The  Journal  of  Science  for  March, 
1895,  contained  a  brief  article  on  Daimonelix  signed  with  the 
initials,  J.  D.  D.  On  Friday,  April  12,  he  wrote  a  letter  to  Mr. 
Frank  Leverett,  containing  a  clear  discussion  of  the  conditions  of 
eolian  work  and  the  limits  of  its  effects.  Two  days  later,  on  the 
evening  of  Easter  Sunday,  he  passed  into  the  eternal  rest. 

The  appreciation  of  the  work  of  Dana  by  other  scientific  men 
was  testified  by  the  honors  which  came  to  him  in  abundance. 
Amherst,  Harvard,  and  Edinburgh  gave  him  the  degree  of  Doctor 
of  Laws,  Munich  that  of  Doctor  of  Philosophy.  He  was  Presi- 
dent of  the  American  Association  for  the  Advancement  of  Science 
and  of  the  Geological  Society  of  America,  and  Vice-President  of 
the  National  Academy  of  Sciences.  He  was  elected  to  membership 
in  the  Royal  Societies  of  London,  Edinburgh,  and  Dublin,  and 
the  Academies  of  Paris,  Saint  Petersburg,  Vienna,  Berlin,  Giittin- 
gen,  Munich,  Stockholm,  and  Buda-Pesth.  He  received  the 
Copley  Medal  of  the  Royal  Society  of  London,  the  Wollaston 
Medal  of  the  Royal  Geological  Society  of  London,  the  Clarke 
Memorial  Medal  of  the  Royal  Society  of  New  South  Wales,  and 
the  Walker  Prize  of  the  Boston  Society  of  Natural  History. 

The  science  to  which  the  early  years  of  Professor  Dana's  pro- 
ductive activity  were  chiefly  devoted  was  mineralogy.  The  System 
of  Mineralogy,  published  in  1837,  took  rank  at  once  as  a  standard 
treatise — rather,  one  might  be  justified  in  saying,  the  standard 
treatise  of  the  science. 

In  the  first  two  editions,  Dana  followed  the  so-called  "  natural 
classification  "  of  Mohs,  in  which  the  groups  depended  chiefly  on 
conspicuous  physical  characters,  such  as  hardness,  luster,  and 


244          LEADING  AMERICAN  MEN  OF  SCIENCE 

specific  gravity;  and  he  proposed  an  original  Latin  nomenclature 
similar  to  that  used  in  botany  and  zoology.  In  the  third  edition 
(1850),  the  "  natural  classification  "  was  abandoned,  with  the  frank 
statement  that  it  was  "false  to  nature  in  its  most  essential  points;" 
and  Dana's  own  Latin  nomenclature  was  not  even  mentioned  in 
the  synonymy.  It  had  become  obvious  that  the  primary  basis  of 
mineralogical  classification  must  be  found  in  chemistry,  while, 
within  the  groups  established  on  chemical  grounds,  subdivisions 
must  be  based  largely  on  crystalline  form.  It  was  further  recog- 
nized that  the  more  comprehensive  groups  must  be  founded  not 
on  the  metallic,  or  electropositive,  constituents,  but  rather  on  the 
non-metallic,  or  electronegative,  constituents,  and  very  largely 
on  the  type  of  the  chemical  formula.  For  instance,  the  iron- 
holding  minerals,  or  the  copper-holding  minerals,  would  form  an 
utterly  heterogeneous  group;  but  the  sulphides,  or  the  carbonates, 
or  the  silicates,  would  form  a  relatively  homogeneous  and  consist- 
ent group.  Among  the  sulphides,  again,  the  monosulphides  and 
the  disulphides  would  form  rational  subdivisions.  A  system  of 
classification  based  primarily  on  chemical  principles  as  now  under- 
stood, with  subdivisions  characterized  by  identity  or  similarity  of 
crystalline  form,  recognizes  all  the  true  relations  which  were 
expressed  in  the  so-called  "  natural  system,"  and  which  the  earlier 
forms  of  chemical  classification  conspicuously  failed  to  recognize. 
In  Part  VI  of  his  third  edition,  Dana  outlined  the  "chemico- 
crystallographic  classification" — a  classification  whose  general 
plan  has  been  almost  universally  adopted,  though  the  progress  of 
mineral  chemistry  has  made  possible  great  improvement  in  the 
details.1  This  classification  was  proposed  tentatively  in  the  third 
edition,  a  merely  provisional  classification  being  used  in  the  ar- 
rangement of  the  descriptive  part  of  the  book.  The  new  classifica- 
tion was  definitively  adopted  in  the  fourth  edition  (1858). 

The  fourth  edition  introduced  a  remarkably  elegant  system  of 
symbols  for  crystalline  forms.  The  treatment  of  crystallography, 
in  this,  as  in  the  previous  editions,  followed  in  general  the  method 

1  A  classification  essentially  similar  to  Dana's  was  proposed  two  years 
later  by  Gustav  Rose,  in  his  Krystallo-chemisches  Mineral-system. 


JAMES  DWIGHT  DANA  245 

of  Naumann.  In  the  sixth  edition  (edited  by  E.  S.  Dana),  the 
system  of  Miller  is  followed,  though  the  symbols  of  J.  D.  Dana 
adapted  to  the  system  of  Naumann  are  also  given. 

The  fact  is  worthy  of  incidental  mention  that  J.  D.  Dana  con- 
structed a  series  of  glass  models  of  crystals  as  early  as  1835 — 
probably  the  first  models  of  this  kind. 

The  fifth  edition  of  the  System  of  Mineralogy  is  a  monumental 
work  in  the  thoroughness  with  which  the  literature  of  the  science 
was  ransacked  to  give  completeness  and  accuracy  to  the  synonymy. 
The  changes  made  in  the  successive  editions  have  kept  pace  with 
the  progress  of  science ;  and  the  book  still  stands,  as  it  stood  more 
than  seventy  years  ago,  at  the  head  of  the  encyclopedic  treatises 
on  descriptive  mineralogy. 

Dana's  reputation  as  a  zoologist  rests  chiefly  upon  the  Reports 
on  the  Zoophytes,  and  on  the  Crustacea,  of  the  United  States 
Exploring  Expedition.  Each  of  these  great  works  is  illustrated 
with  a  magnificent  folio  atlas,  many  of  the  figures  being  colored. 
All  the  figures  of  Crustacea  and  most  of  those  of  Zoophytes  are 
from  Dana's  own  drawings.  More  than  two  hundred  new  species 
of  coral  animals,  and  more  than  five  hundred  new  species  of 
Crustacea,  are  described.  Besides  the  vast  amount  of  detail  work 
represented  by  the  description  of  so  many  new  species,  these 
reports  contributed  to  the  progress  of  science  by  the  advanced 
views  on  classification  which  they  presented. 

The  Report  on  Zoophytes  especially  was  an  epoch-making  work 
in  that  department  of  science.  The  number  of  known  species  of 
coral  animals  was  almost  doubled  by  Dana's  collections.  More- 
over, most  of  the  species  previously  described  had  been  based  on 
the  skeleton  (coral)  alone,  few  naturalists  having  had  any  oppor- 
tunity to  see  the  creatures  alive  or  to  study  their  soft  parts.  Nat- 
urally, therefore,  the  relations  of  the  known  species  were  but 
imperfectly  understood.  Dana's  report,  accordingly,  did  not  con- 
fine itself  to  the  species  collected  in  the  expedition,  but  included 
all  species  then  known.  It  was  thus  a  monograph  of  the  entire 
group.  The  number  of  species  of  the  coral  animals  recognized 


246          LEADING  AMERICAN  MEN  OF  SCIENCE 

was  483,  of  which  229  were  new.  The  Zoophytes  were  divided 
into  the  two  orders,  Actinoidea  and  Hydroidea;  and  the  former  of 
these  orders  was  divided  into  the  two  suborders,  Actinaria  and 
Alcyonaria.  The  order  Actinoidea,  as  denned  by  Dana,  is  equiva- 
lent to  the  class  Anthozoa,  or  Actinozoa,  as  generally  recognized  by 
zoologists  to-day;  and  his  two  suborders  of  Actinoidea  exactly  rep- 
resent the  two  orders  into  which  most  naturalists  would  divide  the 
class  to-day.  In  Dana's  work,  then,  was  published  for  the  first  time 
a  classification  involving  both  a  correct  delimitation  of  the  group  of 
Anthozoa  (sea-anemones  and  coral  animals),  and  a  true  discrimi- 
nation of  its  two  main  divisions.  The  advance  of  knowledge  in  the 
last  half-century  has  made  important  changes  in  the  details  of  the 
classification,  but  in  its  broad  outlines  Dana's  classification  has 
stood  the  test  of  time. 

The  study  of  the  Crustacea  was  in  a  more  advanced  state  than 
that  of  the  corals  before  Dana's  work.  There  was  no  occasion, 
therefore,  for  a  revision  of  the  whole  group  in  his  Report  on  the 
Crustacea.  It  is,  however,  a  striking  proof  of  the  diligence  with 
which  the  work  of  collecting  was  prosecuted  under  manifold  dif- 
ficulties that  he  catalogues  six  hundred  and  eighty  species  col- 
lected in  the  Expedition,  of  which  over  five  hundred  were  new. 

The  study  of  this  group  of  animals  suggested  to  Dana  a  striking 
generalization,  which  was  first  enunciated  in  the  Report  on  Crus- 
tacea, but  which  was  later  discussed  more  fully  in  a  number  of 
papers,  most  of  which  were  published  in  the  Journal  of  Science 
(1863-66) — the  principle  of  cephalization. 

In  the  Crustacea,  as  in  the  Arthropoda  in  general,  each  seg- 
ment of  the  many-jointed  body  bears  typically  a  pair  of  jointed 
appendages,  which  are  serially  homologous,  though  appropriated 
to  different  functions.  In  the  highest  Crustacea,  as  the  crabs 
and  lobsters  (Decapoda),  the  eight  anterior  segments  bear  append- 
ages cephalic  (i.  e.,  sensory  or  oral)  in  function;  namely,  two  pairs 
of  antennae,  one  pair  of  mandibles,  two  pairs  of  maxillae,  and  three 
pairs  of  accessary  mouth-organs  (maxillipeds) ;  while  the  next 
five  segments  bear  the  principal  locomotive  appendages.  In  a 
lower  group  represented  by  the  sow-bugs  and  sand-fleas  (Arthros- 


JAMES  DWIGHT  DANA  247 

traca),  the  second  and  third  pairs  of  maxillipeds  are  represented 
by  legs,  so  that  these  creatures  have  only  six  cephalic  (sensory  and 
oral)  segments,  and  seven,  instead  of  five,  locomotive  segments. 
In  still  lower  Crustacea  (Entomostraca),  the  number  of  function- 
ally cephalic  appendages  is  still  less,  even  the  antennae  becoming 
sometimes  organs  of  locomotion  or  adhesion.  Moreover,  in  the 
crabs  (Brachyura),  which  form  the  highest  division  of  the  Deca- 
poda,  the  posterior  part  of  the  body  is  greatly  reduced  in  size,  and 
most  of  its  segments  are  destitute  of  appendages.  The  whole 
body  seems  almost,  so  to  speak,  absorbed  into  the  head.  The 
larger  number  of  appendages  appropriated  to  cephalic  functions 
in  the  higher  Crustacea  is  naturally  correlated  with  a  greater 
development  of  the  cephalic  ganglion.  It  was  natural  that  the 
contemplation  of  facts  like  these  should  suggest  to  a  mind  so  fond 
of  generalization  as  was  that  of  Dana  the  broad  principle  that,  as 
"anteroposterior  polarity"  characterizes  animals  in  distinction 
from  plants,  so  the  grade  of  different  animal  forms  in  comparison 
with  each  other  is  shown  by  the  "  degree  of  structural  subordina- 
tion to  the  head  and  of  concentration  headward  in  body  structure." 
The  principle  is  an  important  and  valuable  one.  Certainly, 
as  we  pass  from  the  lower,  and  in  general  the  earlier,  types  of  ani- 
mal life,  to  the  higher,  and  in  general  the  later,  types,  there  is  a 
tremendous  advance  in  cephalization.  From  a  protozoan,  desti- 
tute even  of  a  mouth  (the  earliest  cephalic  feature  to  be  developed), 
or  from  a  sea-anemone,  whose  symmetry  is  radial  rather  than 
bilateral,  and  in  which  therefore  there  is  but  faint  indication  of  an 
anteroposterior  axis,  to  man,  with  his  immense  brain,  there  is  a 
tremendous  advance  in  "degree  of  structural  subordination  to 
the  head."  In  Dana's  application  of  the  principle  of  cephalization 
to  zoological  classification,  there  was  much  of  ingenuity.  But  it 
cannot  be  denied  that  he  sometimes  gave  undue  weight  to  mere 
analogies.  A  notable  example  of  this  is  his  argument  for  the  ordi- 
nal distinctness  of  man  from  other  mammals,  on  the  ground  that 
his  anterior  limbs,  instead  of  being  locomotive  in  function,  are 
used  for  prehension  and  manipulation.  They  are,  according  to 
his  conception,  cephalic  organs — organs  appropriated  to  the  imme- 


248          LEADING  AMERICAN  MEN  OF  SCIENCE 

diate  service  of  the  brain.  Now,  among  the  Crustacea,  the 
Decapoda,  as  we  have  seen,  have  eight  pairs  of  cephalic  organs 
and  five  pairs  of  locomotive  organs,  while  the  Arthrostraca  have 
six  pairs  of  cephalic  organs  and  seven  pairs  of  locomotive  organs, 
the  second  and  third  pairs  of  maxillipeds  in  the  former  group  being 
homologous  with  the  first  two  pairs  of  legs  in  the  latter.  In  like 
manner,  the  last  pair  of  oral  (cephalic)  appendages  in  Insects — 
the  labium — is  believed  to  be  homologous  with  the  first  pair  of 
legs  in  the  Arachnoids.  Dana's  argument  was,  accordingly, 
that  the  distinction  in  regard  to  the  use  of  the  anterior  limbs  in 
man  and  other  mammals  was  analogous  to  the  cases  cited  among 
the  Arthropoda,  and  that  man  must  therefore  be  made  at  least  a 
distinct  order  in  the  classification.  There  is  of  course  no  homol- 
ogy  between  vertebrate  limbs  and  arthropodan  appendages;  and 
Dana's  argument,  based  on  a  mere  analogy,  and  not  a  very  close 
analogy,  has  no  force  as  viewed  from  the  standpoint  of  zoology 
to-day.  Viewing  Dana's  discussion  of  cephalization  from  the  mod- 
ern evolutionary  standpoint,  one  might  make  the  general  criticism 
that  the  distinction  of  high  and  low,  which  he  emphasized,  is 
of  vastly  less  significance  than  that  of  generalized  and  special- 
ized. Low  forms  may  be  primitive,  or  they  may  be  degenerate. 
A  vertebrate  destitute  of  limbs  would  naturally  be  regarded  as  a 
low,  or  degraded  type.  But  the  lamprey  is  destitute  of  fins  be- 
cause it  is  a  survival  of  a  primitive  type  antedating  the  evolution 
of  limbs,  while  the  snake  has  lost  the  legs  which  its  lizard  ancestors 
possessed.  Writing  before  he  had  adopted  the  theory  of  evolution, 
Dana  of  course  failed  to  appreciate  this  distinction. 

Dana  was  not  an  early  convert  to  the  theory  of  evolution.  It 
is  interesting  to  compare,  with  reference  to  their  attitude  toward 
the  theory  of  evolution,  the  three  men  who  were  the  leading  natu- 
ralists of  this  country  in  the  middle  of  the  nineteenth  century — 
Gray,  Agassiz,  and  Dana.  Gray  was  ready  to  welcome  the  Dar- 
winian theory  when  first  promulgated.  In  a  letter  to  Dana  in 
1857,  he  wrote  the  prophetic  words,  "  You  may  be  sure  that  before 
long  there  must  be  one  or  more  resurrections  of  the  development 
theory  in  a  new  form."  One  year  later  the  prophecy  was  fulfilled 


JAMES  DWIGHT  DANA  249 

by  Darwin  and  Wallace.  Agassiz  remained  till  his  death  a  strenu- 
ous and  bitter  antagonist  of  the  evolution  theory.  Dana  at  first 
opposed  the  theory,  but  later,  with  characteristic  candor,  gave  it 
a  somewhat  qualified  assent. 

About  the  middle  of  the  nineteenth  century,  the  majority  of  natu- 
ralists regarded  the  theory  of  evolution  in  any  form  as  dead  beyond 
hope  of  resurrection.  The  general  conception  of  transmutation 
of  species  was  supposed  to  have  been  buried  in  the  same  grave 
with  the  crudities  of  Lamarck  and  of  the  "Vestiges  of  Creation." 
Weismann  says,  "We  who  were  then  the  younger  men,  studying 
in  the  fifties,  had  no  idea  that  a  theory  of  evolution  had  ever  been 
put  forward,  for  no  one  spoke  of  it  to  us,  and  it  was  never  men- 
tioned in  a  lecture."  Dana  himself,  in  his  Thoughts  on  Species* 
had  formulated  the  somewhat  metaphysical  doctrine  that  "a 
species  corresponds  to  a  specific  amount  or  condition  of  concen- 
tered force  defined  in  the  act  or  law  of  creation."  This  formula 
was  supposed  to  apply  alike  to  chemical  elements  and  compounds 
— the  species  of  the  inorganic  world — and  to  the  species  of  plants 
and  animals.  The  permanence  of  species  seemed  to  follow  a 
priori  from  this  conception.  Dana  was  also  disinclined  to  the 
theory  of  evolution  on  theological  grounds,  since  he  was  under  the 
influence  of  a  phase  of  natural  theology  then  prevalent,  which 
found  the  most  convincing  evidence  of  a  personal  God  in  the  sup- 
posed breaks  in  the  continuity  of  nature.  Another  cause  of  the 
lateness  of  Dana's  accession  to  the  evolution  theory  was  the  fact 
that  the  date  of  publication  of  the  Origin  of  Species,  approxi- 
mately coincided  with  the  date  of  the  breakdown  of  Dana's  health. 
On  this  account  he  did  not  read  Darwin's  book  for  several  years 
after  its  publication,  and  naturally  failed  to  appreciate  how  greatly 
the  status  of  the  evolution  theory  was  changed.  We  know  from 
the  correspondence  between  Dana  and  Darwin  that  Dana  did  not 
read  the  Origin  till  some  time  after  February,  1863. 

In  the  second  edition  of  the  Manual  of  Geology  (1871),  Dana 
still  maintained  the  permanence  of  species.  "Geology,"  he  de- 
clared, "has  brought  to  light  no  facts  sustaining  a  theory  that 
1  American  Journal  of  Science,  series  2,  vol.  24,  pp.  305-316. 


250          LEADING  AMERICAN  MEN  OF  SCIENCE 

derives  species  from  others."  But  in  the  second  edition  of  the 
Text-book  of  Geology,  published  in  1874,  he  took  a  somewhat 
qualified  evolutionary  position,  in  the  following  statements:  "The 
evolution  of  the  system  of  life  went  forward  through  the  deri- 
vation of  species  from  species,  according  to  natural  methods  not 
yet  clearly  understood,  and  with  few  occasions  for  supernatural 
intervention.  The  method  of  evolution  admitted  of  abrupt  tran- 
sitions between  species.  For  the  development  of  man  there  was 
required,  as  Wallace  has  urged,  the  special  act  of  a  Being  above 
nature."  In  the  two  remaining  decades  of  Professor  Dana's  life, 
his  faith  in  evolution  became  somewhat  more  decided.  In  the 
last  edition  of  the  Manual  of  Geology,  he  gave  much  fuller  recogni- 
tion than  before  to  Darwin's  principle  of  natural  selection,  though 
holding  more  nearly  a  neo-Lamarckian  than  a  strictly  Darwinian 
view  of  the  method  of  evolution.  He  still  maintained  that  "the 
intervention  of  a  Power  above  nature  was  at  the  basis  of  man's 
development."  In  the  same  paragraph  he  declared  that  "nature 
exists  through  the  will  and  ever-acting  power  of  the  Divine  Being," 
and  that  "the  whole  universe  is  not  merely  dependent  on,  but 
actually  is,  the  will  of  one  Supreme  Intelligence."  One  is  tempted 
to  ask  why,  if  all  nature  is  thus  divine,  we  need  to  assume  for  man 
a  supernatural  origin.  A  truer  evolutionary  theistic  philosophy 
recognizes  so  fully  an  immanent  God  in  the  continuity  of  nature 
that  it  seeks  no  apparent  breaks  of  continuity  wherein  to  find  him. 
Though  Professor  Dana's  faith  in  the  doctrine  of  evolution 
was,  even  to  the  end,  a  little  hesitant,  it  must  be  recognized  as  a 
remarkable  proof  of  his  open-mindedness  and  candor  that,  at  an 
age  when  most  men's  opinions  are  already  petrified,  he  was  able  to 
make  so  radical  a  change,  and  frankly  to  adopt  the  views  he  had 
so  long  and  so  ably  opposed.  In  1863,  Darwin  wrote  to  Dana 
as  follows:  "Pray  do  not  suppose  that  I  think  for  one  instant 
that,  with  your  strong  and  slowly  acquired  convictions  and  im- 
mense knowledge,  you  could  have  been  converted.  The  utmost 
that  I  could  have  hoped  would  have  been  that  you  might  have 
been  here  or  there  staggered."  But  the  unexpected  happened; 
and  in  the  course  of  the  next  decade  Darwin  could  rejoice  over  his 


JAMES  DWIGHT  DANA  251 

friend's  conversion.  The  accession  to  the  ranks  of  the  evolu- 
tionists of  one  whose  learning  was  so  vast  and  varied,  whose  think- 
ing was  so  conservative,  and  whose  spirit  was  so  devout,  was  a  very 
potent  factor  in  promoting  the  acceptance  of  the  doctrine  among 
thinkers  outside  the  ranks  of  scientific  specialists. 

Valuable  as  were  the  investigations  of  Professor  Dana  in  miner- 
alogy and  in  zoology,  his  great  work  was  in  geology.  The  last 
three  decades  of  his  life  were  devoted  almost  entirely  to  that  science. 
After  the  publication  of  the  fifth  edition  of  the  System  of  Miner- 
alogy, in  1868,  he  scarcely  published  anything  outside  of  the  field 
of  geology.  No  other  science  was  so  well  adapted  to  the  tastes 
and  capabilities  of  a  mind  so  strongly  disposed  to  broad  views  of 
comprehensive  relations.  As  Dana  himself  remarked,  "Geology 
is  all  the  sciences  combined  into  one."  In  such  a  science  such  a 
mind  might  well  find  its  chosen  field. 

The  Manual  of  Geology,  has  been  since  its  first  publication 
the  one  indispensable  book  of  reference  for  any  American  geolo- 
gist. Apart  from  its  unique  character  as  a  manual  of  American 
geology,  it  is  unquestionably  one  of  the  best  manuals  of  geology 
in  general.  But  it  must  not  be  forgotten  that  Dana's  contribu- 
tions to  geology  include  more  than  one  hundred  and  fifty  books 
and  papers  of  greater  or  less  length  and  importance  besides  the 
encyclopedic  Manual. 

Perhaps  the  most  characteristic  contribution  of  Dana  to  geology 
was  in  rendering  more  clear  and  definite  the  conception  of  the 
scope  and  significance  of  the  science.  There  is  a  little  exaggera- 
tion in  Le  Conte's  statement  that  "geology  became  one  of  the 
great  departments  of  abstract  science,  with  its  own  characteristic 
idea  and  its  own  distinctive  method  under  Dana."  1  Yet  the  state- 
ment contains  an  important  truth.  More  or  less  clearly  all  geolog- 
ical investigators  must  have  felt  that  the  distinctive  idea  of  geology 
is  that  the  structures  shown  in  the  rocks  of  the  earth's  crust, 
whether  on  the  large  scale  or  on  the  small  scale,  whether  seen  in 
the  panoramic  view  of  the  landscape  or  discerned  by  the  micro- 
1  Bulletin  of  the  Geological  Society  of  America,  vol.  7,  p.  463. 


252          LEADING  AMERICAN  MEN  OF  SCIENCE 

scope,  have  their  supreme  significance  as  monumental  inscriptions, 
the  deciphering  of  which  may  reveal  to  us  the  history  of  the  earth. 
Yet  surely  this  conception  had  never  been  so  clearly  formulated, 
and  the  whole  treatment  of  the  subject  never  so  consistently  ad- 
justed thereto,  as  in  the  writings  of  Dana.  The  portion  of  pre- 
vious manuals  dealing  with  the  distribution  of  the  series  of  strata 
had  generally  borne  some  such  title  as  "Stratigraphical  Geology" ; 
and  very  commonly  the  series  had  been  traced  backward,  com- 
mencing with  the  most  recent  strata.1  The  phrase,  "Historical 
Geology,"  which  forms  the  title  of  that  part  of  Dana's  Manual, 
involves  a  distinct  clarification  of  the  general  view  of  the  science. 
Starting  with  this  conception,  of  course  he  deals  with  the  earliest 
formations  first.  In  treating  of  each  era,  he  endeavors  to  recon- 
struct, from  the  evidence  afforded  by  the  kinds  and  distribution  of 
the  rocks,  the  physical  geography  of  the  time.  In  accordance  with 
this  general  principle,  the  sections  of  the  Historical  Geology  in  the 
Manual  were  not  characterized  as  series,  systems,  and  groups  of 
strata,  but  as  eras,  periods,  and  epochs  of  time.  The  common 
use  in  recent  geological  writings  of  such  phrases  as  "Silurian  era," 
rather  than  "Silurian  system,"  etc.,  is  a  testimony  to  the  influence 
of  Dana's  mode  of  treatment.2  The  key-note  of  Dana's  concep- 
tion of  geology  as  history  is  clearly  sounded  in  his  presidential 
address  before  the  American  Association  for  the  Advancement 
of  Science  in  1855.  The  title  of  the  address  is  significant — On 
American  Geological  History.  In  that  address  occurs  the  follow- 
ing passage:  "Geology  is  not  simply  the  science  of  rocks,  for 
rocks  are  but  incidents  in  the  earth's  history,  and  may  or  may 
not  have  been  the  same  in  distant  places.  It  has  its  more  exalted 
end, — even  the  study  of  the  progress  of  life  from  its  earliest  dawn 
to  the  appearance  of  man;  and  instead  of  saying  that  fossils  are 
of  use  to  determine  rocks,  we  should  rather  say  that  the  rocks  are 
of  use  for  the  display  of  the  succession  of  fossils." 

To  Dana  we  owe  the  formulation  of  a  doctrine  now  almost 
universally  adopted  by  geologists — the  doctrine  of  the  permanence 

1  As  in  the  manuals  by  Lyell  and  De  la  Beche. 

2  Williams,  in  Journal  of  Geology,  vol.  3,  p.  606. 


JAMES  DWIGHT  DANA  253 

of  continents  and  oceans.  It  is  of  course  a  fact  familiar  to  all 
students  of  geology  that  nearly  if  not  quite  the  whole  surface  of 
our  existing  continents  has  been  covered  at  some  time  by  the  waters 
of  the  sea.  This  naturally  suggested  the  belief  which  was  held  by 
Lyell,  the  great  master  of  geology  in  the  middle  of  the  nineteenth 
century,  as  it  had  been  held  in  general  by  his  predecessors,  that 
continent  and  ocean  have  repeatedly  changed  places.  Moreover, 
the  strictly  uniformitarian  doctrine  of  Lyell  was  adverse  to  any 
notion  of  progressive  change  in  any  definite  direction.  Lyell, 
accordingly,  conceived  of  a  perfectly  indefinite,  kaleidoscopic 
interchange  of  continent  and  ocean  in  the  course  of  geological 
time.  The  Lyellian  doctrine  finds  beautiful  expression  in  the 
familiar  lines  of  In  Memoriam: — 

"There  rolls  the  deep  where  grew  the  tree. 
O  earth,  what  changes  thou  hast  seen! 
There,  where  the  long  street  roars,  hath  been 
The  stillness  of  the  central  sea." 

Dana,  on  the  contrary,  believed  that  our  present  continents 
and  oceans  were  outlined  as  areas  of  relative  elevation  and  depres- 
sion, respectively,  in  the  crust  of  the  globe,  in  the  very  beginning 
of  geological  time.  The  progress  of  geographical  evolution  has 
been,  in  the  broadest  view,  a  subsidence  of  the  ocean  bottoms,  a 
withdrawal  of  the  waters  more  and  more  into  the  deepening 
basins,  and  consequently  a  progressive  emergence  of  continental 
lands.  The  substantial  truth  of  this  view,  enunciated  by  Dana 
in  I846,1  hardly  admits  of  doubt;  though  there  has  been  an  amount 
of  oscillation,  in  connection  with  the  progressive  deepening  of  the 
oceans  and  emergence  of  the  lands,  which  Dana  seems  not  to 
have  adequately  appreciated.  The  greater  density  of  the  sub- 
oceanic  masses  in  comparison  with  the  subcontinental  masses,  as 
shown  by  pendulum  observations,  indicates  that  the  distinction 
between  continent  and  ocean  depends  on  the  heterogeneity  of  the 
material  in  the  interior  of  the  earth ;  and  the  determining  conditions 
must  therefore  have  had  their  origin  in  the  initial  aggregation  of 

i  American  Journal  of  Science,  series  2,  vol.  2,  p.  353. 


254          LEADING  AMERICAN  MEN  OF  SCIENCE 

the  part  of  the  primitive  meteoric  swarm  which  formed  the  earth ; 
or,  perhaps,  as  suggested  by  Chamberlin  and  Salisbury,  in  the 
changes  attendant  upon  the  beginning  of  the  formation  of  the 
ocean.  The  study  of  the  sedimentary  formations  which  cover  our 
existing  continents  shows  that  almost  all  of  them  were  deposited 
in  shallow  waters,  many  of  the  strata,  indeed,  in  waters  so  shallow 
that  the  layers  of  mud  and  sand  were  from  time  to  time  exposed 
by  the  receding  tide  or  subsiding  freshet,  to  dry  and  crack  in  the 
sun  or  to  be  pitted  by  raindrops.  Scarcely  any  of  the  strata  bear 
evidences  of  deposition  in  water  of  very  considerable  depth.  Even 
the  chalk  of  England  and  of  Texas  was  probably  not  deposited 
in  waters  of  oceanic  depth. 

Another  general  topic  in  dynamical  geology  for  whose  elucida- 
tion we  are  greatly  indebted  to  the  writings  of  Dana  is  the  process 
of  mountain-making.1  That  the  main  cause  of  mountain  eleva- 
tion is  the  tangential  pressure  in  the  earth's  crust  resulting  from 
internal  contraction,  is  now  somewhat  generally  acknowledged; 
though  there  may  be  doubt  whether  the  main  cause  of  contrac- 
tion is  the  cooling  of  the  earth  from  an  incandescent  condition, 
as  assumed  in  the  commonly  accepted  form  of  the  nebular  theory, 
or  the  gravitational  adjustment  of  an  incoherent  aggregation  of 
planetesimals,  as  assumed  in  the  more  recent  hypothesis  of 
Chamberlin  and  Moulton.  Whatever  the  cause  or  causes  of 
internal  contraction,  its  effect  in  causing  crustal  wrinkles  would 
be  the  same.  As,  in  Dana's  homely  illustration,  the  smooth  skin 
of  the  plump,  fresh  apple  becomes  wrinkled  when  the  apple  dries 
and  shrivels,  so  the  earth's  skin  must  wrinkle  if  the  interior 
decreases  in  volume.  The  idea  of  the  contractional  origin  of 
mountains  was  not  original  with  Dana.  A  glimmer  of  the  idea 
appears  in  the  writings  of  Leibnitz.  Constant  Prevost  appears 

1  The  views  of  Le  Conte  on  this  subject  are  in  most -points  similar  to  those 
of  Dana;  but,  while  Le  Conte's  discussions  have  been  of  great  value,  the 
priority  in  the  general  development  of  the  theory  belongs  to  Dana.  See  the 
noble  and  generous  tribute  of  Le  Conte,  in  his  obituary  of  Dana,  read  before 
the  Geological  Society  of  America,  and  published  in  vol.  7  of  the  Bulletin  of 
the  Society. 


JAMES  DWIGHT  DANA  255 

to  have  been  the  first  to  develop  the  idea  into  a  definite  scientific 
theory.  But  the  elaboration  of  the  theory  into  its  present  form 
is  largely  the  work  of  Dana.  His  earliest  discussion  of  the  sub- 
ject appeared  in  the  Journal  of  Science  in  1847.  In  later  years  he 
returned  to  the  subject  again  and  again;  and  the  theory,  as 
shaped  by  his  maturest  thought,  appears  in  the  last  edition  of 
the  Manual.  In  his  earlier  writings,  his  views  of  the  origin  of 
continents  and  mountains  are  developed  on  the  assumption 
of  a  liquid  globe.  In  later  years  he  abandoned  that  view,  and 
adjusted  his  theories  to  the  more  probable  doctrine  of  a  globe 
substantially  solid. 

Dana's  conception  of  the  origin  of  mountains  may  be  formu- 
lated somewhat  as  follows:  In  the  contraction  of  the  earth's 
interior,  the  suboceanic  crust  is  the  chief  seat  of  subsidence. 
As  the  suboceanic  crust,  in  its  subsidence,  necessarily  flattens, 
so  that  its  profile  continually  approaches  the  chord  of  the  arc,  it 
exerts  a  tangential  thrust  towards  the  continental  areas.  The 
rather  abrupt  change  in  the  radius  of  curvature,  in  passing  from 
the  oceanic  to  the  continental  areas,  determines  lines  of  weakness 
along  the  continental  borders,  which  mark  in  general  the  location 
of  the  great  mountain  wrinkles.  The  crustal  wrinkles  will  involve 
upward  and  downward  folds — geanticlines  and  geosynclines  (in  dis- 
tinction from  simple  anticlines  and  synclines,  which  are  foldings 
of  strata  on  a  much  smaller  scale  both  in  breadth  and  depth).  A 
gradually  subsiding  geosynclinal  trough  along  the  border  of  a 
continent  may  naturally  be  kept  full  of  sediment  deposited  pari 
passu  with  the  subsidence.  Thus  strata  may  accumulate  in  nar- 
row tracts  to  immense  thickness,  as  in  the  case  of  the  Appalachians, 
taken  by  Dana  as  a  type  of  mountain  structure,  where  the  strata 
are  more  than  six  miles  in  thickness.  The  progressive  subsidence 
carries  the  lower  strata  of  the  mass  to  a  depth  where  they  are 
affected  by  the  internal  heat  of  the  earth,  since  the  isogeotherms 
are  nearly  parallel  with  the  surface.  These  water-loaded  sedi- 
ments are  softened  in  much  greater  degree  by  the  high  tempera- 
tures which  they  encounter  than  the  nearly  anhydrous  crystalline 
rocks  which  they  have  displaced.  The  geosynclinal  trough  at  last 


256          LEADING  AMERICAN  MEN  OF  SCIENCE 

becomes  so  weak  that  the  ever  persistent  tangential  pressure 
crushes  it  together.  The  strata  are  thrown  into  alternating  anti- 
clines and  synclines,  or  one  part  forced  over  another  in  great 
thrust  faults,  while  slaty  cleavage  and  more  decided  forms  of 
metamorphism  may  be  produced.  A  mountain  range  thus  pro- 
duced Dana  calls  a  synclinorium.  In  such  a  process,  the  final 
crushing  of  the  geosyncline  is  a  movement  relatively  rapid  in  com- 
parison with  the  age-long  accumulation  of  sediment  in  the  sub- 
siding trough.  Hence,  in  the  history  of  any  region,  there  are  long 
ages  of  comparative  tranquillity  alternating  with  brief  epochs  of 
rapid  geographical  change — "revolutions,"  as  Dana  has  somewhat 
poetically  called  them.  These  revolutions  are  the  time  boundaries 
of  geological  history,  delimiting  the  eons  and  eras  into  which 
geological  time  is  divided.  Thus  an  evolutionary  geology  recog- 
nizes the  truths  in  the  .two  systems  of  catastrophism  and  uniformi- 
tarianism  which  it  has  displaced. 

While  in  most  mountain  regions  the  thick  masses  of  strongly 
folded,  thrust,  and  metamorphosed  strata  bear  witness  to  the 
crushing  of  a  geosyncline,  Dana  also  recognized  that  a  geanti- 
cline may  result  in  a  permanent  elevation.  Such  a  mountain 
range  he  proposed  to  call  an  anticlinorium.  There  is  reason  to 
believe  that  the  actual  history  of  most  mountain  ranges  is  complex. 
Thus,  the  Appalachian  range  was  formed  by  the  crushing  of  a 
geosyncline  at  the  close  of  Paleozoic  time,  degraded  nearly  to 
base-level  by  atmospheric  and  aqueous  action  in  Mesozoic  time, 
and  again  elevated  by  a  broad  geanticlinal  movement  early  in 
Cenozoic  time.  In  these  two  phases  of  elevation  it  may  serve  to 
illustrate  Dana's  two  types  of  mountain  range — the  synclinorium 
and  the  anticlinorium.  Its  present  topography  of  ridge  and  valley 
is  due  to  erosion  subsequent  to  the  Cenozoic  elevation. 

There  are  unquestionably  weak  points  in  the  theory  of  mountain- 
making  as  thus  developed;  and,  in  our  ignorance  of  the  conditions 
in  the  interior  of  the  earth  and  of  the  forces  there  in  action,  it  ill 
becomes  us  to  be  dogmatic.  But  the  theory  is  certainly  a  beautiful 
one,  and  is  worthy  of  a  provisional  acceptance  as  the  most  plausible 
explanation  of  orogenic  processes  yet  suggested. 


JAMES  DWIGHT  DANA  257 

Dana  has  illustrated  his  conception  of  geographical  evolution 
by  the  concrete  example  of  the  development  of  the  continent  of 
North  America.1  The  continent  is  pictured  at  the  beginning  of 
Paleozoic  time,  showing  a  V-shaped  area  of  land  composed  of 
Archaean  rocks,  with  the  apex  of  the  V  in  the  region  of  Lake 
Superior,  and  its  arms  extending  northeastward  to  Labrador  and 
northwestward  to  the  Arctic  Ocean,  while  other  linear  areas  of 
Archaean  rock  (protaxes)  mark  the  positions  of  the  Appalachian 
chain  on  the  east  and  the  Cordillera  on  the  west.  Between  the  Ap- 
palachian and  the  Cordilleran  protaxis  lies  a  vast  Mediterranean 
sea  of  shallow  water  (the  Mississippian  Sea,  as  it  has  been  appro- 
priately named),  in  which  sedimentary  deposits  are  gradually 
accumulating,  while  its  northern  shore-line  along  the  Archaean  V 
moves  gradually  southward,  as  the  progressive  oceanic  subsidence 
allows  strip  after  strip  of  dry  land  to  emerge  and  to  be  annexed 
to  the  primitive  nucleus  of  the  continent.  So  the  Paleozoic  strata 
crop  out  in  parallel  bands  through  New  York  and  westward. 
The  tranquil  progress  is  interrupted  by  the  Taconic  revolution 
(post-Ordovician),  uplifting  a  mountain  range  in  western  New 
England  and  eastern  New  York,  and  probably  other  ranges  now 
in  ruins  farther  south;  and  later  by  the  Appalachian  revolution 
(post-Carboniferous),  uplifting  the  Appalachian  range  from  the 
Catskills  to  the  mountains  of  Alabama.  The  eastern  half  of  the 
continent  becomes  permanent  dry  land  at  the  close  of  the  Paleo- 
zoic, while  the  evolution  of  the  western  half — a  newer  territory 
geologically  as  well  as  politically — goes  on  through  later  time. 
The  Sierra  revolution  (post- Jurassic)  and  the  Laramide  revolu- 
tion (post-Cretaceous),  uplifting  respectively  the  Sierra  Nevada  and 
the  main  ranges  of  the  Rocky  Mountains,  serve  as  time  bound- 
aries for  the  later  ages  of  geological  time,  as  the  Taconic  and  the 
Appalachian  revolutions  for  earlier  ages. 

The  picture  is  a  noble  one,  and  in  its  main  outlines  true,  though 
the  actual  history  was  less  simple  than  the  student  would  naturally 

1  Notably  in  his  presidential  address  before  the  American  Association  for 
the  Advancement  of  Science,  in  1855;  most  fully,  of  course,  in  the  Manual  of 
Geology. 


258          LEADING  AMERICAN  MEN  OF  SCIENCE 

infer  even  from  the  last  edition  of  the  Manual.  Dana  recognizes 
indeed  the  occurrence  of  oscillations  in  the  progressive  emergence 
of  the  continent,  but  he  seems  not  to  appreciate  adequately  their 
magnitude  and  importance.  In  earliest  Cambrian  time,  for  in- 
stance, the  area  of  dry  land  was  far  greater  than  in  later  Cam- 
brian or  Ordovician  time.  In  the  earliest  Cambrian  (Georgian 
period),  the  Mississippian  Sea  was  only  a  sound  or  strait,  the 
greater  part  of  the  area  of  the  Mississippian  Sea  of  later  Cambrian 
and  Ordovician  time  being  then  dry  land.  While  the  progressive 
deepening  of  the  oceans  and  emergence  of  the  continents  is  unques- 
tionably a  great  truth,  the  oscillations  were  so  considerable  that 
an  alternation  of  marine  and  terrestrial  conditions  over  vast  areas 
must  be  equally  recognized.  But  we  do  not  refuse  the  honor  due 
to  Copernicus,  though  he  made  the  planetary  orbits  circular, 
instead  of  elliptical;  and  to  Dana  belongs  no  less  the  credit  of  the 
great  conception  of  continental  evolution,  though  he  made  the 
curve  too  simple. 

Dana's  first  introduction  to  the  problem  of  coral  islands  was  at 
the  Paumotu  Islands  in  1839.  The  coral  animals,  whose  skeletons, 
broken  or  comminuted  by  the  waves,  furnish  materials  for  the 
reefs,  live  only  in  shallow  water,  seldom  ranging  much  below  a 
depth  of  one  hundred  feet.  It  is  accordingly  readily  intelligible 
that  the  debris  of  these  skeletons  may  accumulate  to  form  fringing 
reefs,  closely  bordering  the  shore  of  a  continent  or  island.  But 
a  more  difficult  problem  is  presented  by  the  barrier  reefs  and 
atolls.  The  barrier  reefs  may  be  separated  from  the  shore  by  a 
channel  ten  or  fifty  miles  in  breadth  or  even  more,  and  hundreds 
of  feet  in  depth.  Still  more  startling  are  the  atolls — rings  of  coral 
reef,  which  may  be  crowned  with  scattered  islets  or  with  a  more 
or  less  complete  crest  of  dry  land,  inclosing  a  comparatively 
shallow  lagoon,  and  surrounded  by  water  deepening  rapidly  to 
thousands  of  feet,  and  far  from  any  other  land.  The  supposition 
that  the  reef  has  actually  been  built  up  from  a  depth  of  a  thousand 
feet  or  more,  is  obviously  inconsistent  with  the  fact  that  the  animals 
live  only  in  shallow  water.  When  Dana  arrived  at  Sydney  in  the 
latter  part  of  the  year  1839,  his  mind  was  full  of  the  problem, 


JAMES  DWIGHT  DANA  259 

which  he  had  not  yet  solved  to  his  own  satisfaction.  Darwin 
had  been  at  work  at  the  problem  three  years  earlier,  and  at  Sydney 
Dana  learned  of  Darwin's  theory.  It  seemed  to  him  then  to 
explain  the  phenomena  he  had  studied  in  the  regions  of  barrier 
reefs  and  atolls  which  he  had  already  visited;  and  the  larger 
acquaintance  with  coral  formations  which  he  gained  in  the  course 
of  the  next  two  years  seemed  to  him  only  to  bring  ampler  evidence 
of  its  truth.  Although  the  original  conception  was  Darwin's, 
Dana  had  the  opportunity  to  study  a  vastly  greater  number  and 
variety  of  coral  formations  than  Darwin  had  ever  seen,  so  that  he 
was  able  to  support  the  theory  with  a  greater  wealth  of  evidence 
than  Darwin  himself.  Darwin  welcomed  most  cordially  so  power- 
ful an  ally.  Writing  to  Lyell,  after  receiving  a  copy  of  the  Report 
on  the  Geology  of  the  Exploring  Expedition,  he  refers  to  the 
substantial  agreement  of  Dana's  views  with  his  own,  and  adds, 
"  Considering  how  infinitely  more  he  saw  of  coral  reefs  than  I  did, 
this  is  wonderfully  satisfactory  to  me.  He  treats  me  most  cour- 
teously." 

The  theory  of  Darwin  and  Dana  may  be  summed  up  in  a  single 
word — subsidence.  If  there  occurs,  along  a  coast  of  continent  or 
island  bordered  by  a  fringing  reef,  a  subsidence  not  more  rapid 
than  the  upward  growth  of  the  reef,  the  coral  growth  and  conse- 
quent reef  formation  will  be  most  rapid  on  the  outer  margin  of 
the  reef,  where  the  water  is  purest,  and  the  supply  of  oxygen  and 
of  floating  life  available  for  food  is  greatest;  and  the  channel 
between  the  reef  and  the  shore  will  consequently  become  wider 
and  deeper.  Thus  the  fringing  reef  becomes  a  barrier  reef.  If 
an  island  is  girt  with  a  coral  reef,  the  ultimate  effect  of  a  progres- 
sive subsidence  will  be  to  carry  the  original  island  entirely  under 
water,  leaving  an  atoll  as  a  monument  to  mark  its  place  of  burial. 
The  most  important  difference  between  Darwin's  own  conception 
of  the  theory  and  that  of  Dana  was  that  Darwin,  in  the  spirit  of 
the  Lyellian  geology,  thought  of  the  Pacific  area  of  coral  islands 
as  very  likely  marking  the  site  of  a  drowned  continent;  while 
Dana,  in  accordance  with  his  own  doctrine  of  the  essential  perma- 
nence of  continent  and  ocean,  conceived  the  drowned  lands  to  be 


260          LEADING  AMERICAN  MEN  OF  SCIENCE 

only  volcanic  peaks,  such  as  may  be  formed  by  submarine  volcanic 
action  in  regions  remote  from  continental  land. 

The  history  of  the  Darwinian  theory  has  been  a  singular  one. 
When  first  announced,  it  produced  on  most  scientific  minds  the 
same  impression  of  complete  satisfaction  that  it  produced  upon 
the  mind  of  Dana.  The  subsidence  of  large  areas  of  the  ocean 
bottom  which  it  postulates,  is  sufficiently  probable  a  priori;  and 
the  theory  possesses  that  same  charm  of  simplicity  which  charac- 
terizes Newton's  conception  of  gravitation  and  Darwin's  own 
theory  of  natural  selection.  Very  naturally,  therefore,  for  three  or 
four  decades,  it  was  generally  accepted  as  the  one  complete  theory 
of  barriers  and  atolls.  Later  researches,  however,  have  shown 
conclusively  that  both  barrier  reefs  and  atolls  may  be  formed  with- 
out subsidence.  At  the  southern  extremity  of  Florida,  three  suc- 
cessive barrier  reefs  have  been  formed,  all  of  which  now  have  their 
crests  almost  at  the  same  level,  showing  that  there  has  been  no 
crustal  movement  of  any  consequence.  Chamisso  long  ago  showed 
that  an  atoll  might  be  formed  on  a  submarine  volcano,  or  on  a 
shoal  of  any  other  origin,  simply  by  the  more  luxuriant  growth  of 
corals  on  the  margin  than  in  the  middle.  Of  course  it  was  impossi- 
ble to  believe  that  several  hundred  submarine  volcanoes  had  been 
raised  to  within  about  a  hundred  feet  of  the  same  level ;  but  Murray 
showed  that  no  such  assumption  of  coincidence  was  necessary.  A 
submarine  volcano  that  did  not  rise  into  the  zone  of  coral  growth, 
could  be  built  up  by  the  accumulation  of  skeletons  of  other  kinds 
of  marine  life  until  it  reached  that  zone;  while  a  volcano  that  rose 
a  little  above  the  sea-level  might  be  degraded  to  a  shoal  by  wave- 
action. 

But,  while  it  is  certain  that  both  barrier  reefs  and  atolls  can  be 
formed  without  subsidence,  it  still  seems  probable  that  there  has 
been  a  very  extensive  subsidence  in  the  central  part  of  the  Pacific 
Ocean,  and  that  this  subsidence  has  been  an  important  factor  in 
the  origin  of  the  numerous  atolls  and  barrier  reefs  of  that  region. 
In  going  northeastward  from  the  zone  of  fringing  reefs  of  the  New 
Hebrides  and  Solomon  Islands,  one  would  traverse  successively 
zones  of  barrier  reefs,  large  atolls,  small  atolls,  and  blank  ocean — 


JAMES  DWIGHT  DANA  261 

an  arrangement  which  is  strongly  suggestive  of  a  subsidence  pro- 
gressively increasing  towards  the  middle  of  the  ocean.  The  asso- 
ciation of  fringing  reefs  with  active  volcanoes  and  of  barrier  reefs 
with  extinct  volcanoes,  as  pointed  out  by  Darwin,  indicates  that 
in  some  way  the  different  kinds  of  coral  formations  are  correlated 
with  hypogene  actions;  and  it  is  probable  that  the  explanation  of 
that  relation  lies  in  the  theory  that  crustal  elevation  in  any  region 
diminishes  the  pressure  on  the  rock  masses  in  a  condition  of  po- 
tential liquidity  a  few  miles  below  the  surface,  thus  lowering  the 
melting-point,  so  that  actual  liquefaction  takes  place,  and  the 
molten  materials  find  their  way  to  the  surface.  The  active  volca- 
noes should  therefore  be  in  regions  where  the  crust  has  been  re- 
cently undergoing  elevation,  while  in  subsiding  areas  the  volcanoes 
should  be  extinct.  The  lagoons  in  the  larger  atolls  often  show  a 
depth  much  greater  than  the  limiting  depth  of  coral  growth.  This 
is  probably  evidence  of  subsidence,  since  there  are  very  strong  ob- 
jections to  Murray's  notion  that  the  lagoons  are  extensively  widened 
and  deepened  by  the  solvent  action  of  the  sea-water.  The  core 
brought  up  from  a  bore  eleven  hundred  feet  deep,  recently  made 
on  the  island  Funafuti  in  the  Ellice  group,  is  said  to  show  no  im- 
portant change  of  character  through  its  entire  length.  It  appears, 
therefore,  probable  that  a  true  coral  reef  rock  extends  down  to  the 
bottom  of  the  bore  and  we  know  not  how  much  farther.  Such  a 
thickness  of  reef  could  of  course  be  formed  only  by  subsidence. 
For  these  and  other  reasons  it  seems  probable  that  Darwin  and 
Dana  were  right  in  believing  that  the  multitudinous  barriers  and 
atolls  of  the  Pacific  are  evidence  of  subsidence  of  a  vast  area.  It 
is  hardly  necessary  to  say  that  Dana's  conception  of  the  drowning 
of  a  multitude  of  oceanic  volcanoes  is  more  probable  than  Dar- 
win's conception  of  the  drowning  of  a  continent. 

Next  to  the  study  of  the  coral  formations,  the  most  important 
geological  work  done  in  the  Exploring  Expedition  was  in  the  study 
of  volcanoes.  Especially  important  was  the  detailed  investigation 
of  the  Hawaiian  volcanoes,  though  numerous  extinct  volcanoes 
were  also  studied  in  the  course  of  the  expedition.  Dana's  work 
contributed,  with  that  of  Scrope  and  Lyell,  to  the  demolition  of 


262          LEADING  AMERICAN  MEN  OF  SCIENCE 

von  Buch's  theory  of  craters  of  elevation  and  the  establishment  of 
a  true  theory  of  the  origin  of  volcanic  cones.  A  volcanic  cone  is 
not  a  sort  of  blister  on  the  earth's  crust,  formed  by  the  uplifting  of 
the  strata  by  intumescent  lavas  beneath,  but  is  simply  a  pile  of 
erupted  material. 

In  the  years  from  1871  to  1888,  Dana  was  engaged  in  the  inves- 
tigation of  the  so-called  "Taconic  Question."  A  great  series  of 
schists,  quartzites,  and  crystalline  limestones,  extending  from  Can- 
ada through  western  Vermont,  Massachusetts,  and  Connecticut, 
and  southeastern  New  York,  had  been  described  by  Ebenezer 
Emmons,  in  1842,*  as  the  Taconic  system,  and  by  him  and  his 
followers  was  claimed  to  be  older  than  the  Champlain  group  of 
the  New  York  geologists  (now  classified  as  Cambrian  and 
Ordovician).  Dana  devoted  much  time  to  the  investigation  of 
the  subject  in  the  field.  He  also  fortunately  got  hold  of  the 
notes  of  Rev.  Augustus  Wing,  and  thus  rescued  from  unde- 
served oblivion  the  discoveries  of  a  patient  and  conscientious 
investigator  who  had  been  too  modest  to  publish  his  work.  The 
result  of  the  labors  of  Dana,  Wing,  Walcott,  and  others  was  the 
conclusive  proof  that  the  so-called  Taconic  system  is  not  pre- 
Cambrian  but  metamorphosed  Cambrian  and  Ordovician. 

The  Taconic  question  was  not  merely,  though  it  was  primarily, 
a  question  of  local  stratigraphy.  The  settlement  of  the  age  of  the 
Taconic  rocks  fixed  the  date  of  the  first  important  epoch  of  oro- 
genie  disturbance  in  the  post-Archaean  history  of  North  America. 
The  Taconic  revolution  stands  as  a  time  boundary  between 
Ordovician  and  Silurian  time.  The  settlement  of  the  Taconic 
question  was  important,  also,  as  establishing  a  perfectly  clear 
case  of  somewhat  highly  crystalline  rocks  of  Paleozoic  age.  It 
was  thus  a  refutation  of  the  belief  of  a  school  of  geologists  now 
extinct  or  nearly  so,  that  all  the  crystalline  schists  and  associated 
rocks  are  Archaean,  and  that  a  crystal  is  as  good  as  a  fossil  to 
determine  the  age  of  a  rock. 

When  the  first  edition  of  the  Manual  of  Geology  was  published, 
opinions  were  still  divided  in  regard  to  the  origin  of  the  hetero- 
1  Geology  of  New  York,  Part  2,  pp.  135-164. 


JAMES  DWIGHT  DANA  263 

geneous  mantle  of  clay,  gravel,  and  boulders,  covering  much  of 
the  area  of  Canada  and  the  northeastern  United  States,  as  well  as 
northwestern  Europe,  and  commonly  called  "drift."  In  opposi- 
tion to  the  older  diluvial  theories,  Agassiz  had  advocated  the  doc- 
trine that  the  drift  was  due  to  the  action  of  a  glacier  of  continental 
extent.  Dana  clearly  indicated  his  sympathy  with  the  views  of 
Agassiz  in  his  presidential  address  before  the  American  Association 
for  the  Advancement  of  Science  in  1855,  and  in  the  Manual  in 
1862  the  glacier  theory  of  the  drift  was  unqualifiedly  adopted. 
Thenceforward  the  great  influence  of  the  Manual  of  Geology  was 
unquestionably  an  important  factor  in  the  rapid  progress  of  the 
glacier  theory  to  substantially  unanimous  acceptance. 

Dana  gave  much  attention  to  a  study  of  the  terraces  and  other 
phenomena  connected  with  the  melting  of  the  ice  sheet,  as  shown 
in  the  vicinity  of  New  Haven  and  in  the  Connecticut  valley.  The 
results  of  these  studies  were  given  in  a  number  of  papers  published 
in  the  years  from  1870  to  1883.  While  these  papers  show  much  of 
conscientious  observation,  their  conclusions  must  be  considerably 
modified  in  the  light  of  more  recent  studies  of  the  Glacial  period. 

The  results  of  another  study  of  Dana's  own  locality  are  given 
in  an  elegant  little  volume  entitled  The  Four  Rocks  of  the  New 
Haven  Region,  published  in  1891.  In  the  careful  study  of  East 
Rock,  West  Rock,  Pine  Rock,  and  Mill  Rock,  he  showed  unmis- 
takably that  the  trap-rock  of  these  picturesque  hills  formed  intru- 
sions in  the  Triassic  sandstones.  He  was,  however,  in  error  in 
extending  the  same  conclusion  to  the  long  series  of  ranges  of  trap 
hills  from  Saltonstall  Ridge  to  Mount  Holyoke.  Though  these 
hills  are  topographically  similar  to  the  New  Haven  "  Rocks,"  and 
consist  of  similar  material,  it  has  been  conclusively  shown  by 
Davis,  Emerson,  and  others  that  the  trap  in  them  has  the  relation 
not  of  intrusions  but  of  lava  sheets  outpoured  upon  the  surface. 

With  Professor  Dana's  profound  faith  in  Christianity,  he  could 
not  be  indifferent  to  the  relations  of  science  and  religion.  Believ- 
ing that  the  opening  chapters  of  Genesis  contain  the  record  of  a 
divine  revelation  of  the  fact  of  creation,  and,  in  some  degree,  of 
the  order  and  method  of  creation,  he  could  not  be  satisfied  without 


264          LEADING  AMERICAN  MEN  OF  SCIENCE 

asking  and  answering  the  question  whether  his  scientific  beliefs 
were  in  harmony  with  that  revelation.      He  published  in  1856  a 
scheme  of  reconciliation  of  Genesis  and  geology,1  for  whose  main 
outlines  he  acknowledged  indebtedness  to  Professor  Arnold  Guyot. 
He  further  expounded  the  scheme  with  much  learning  and  inge- 
nuity in  several  later  publications,  and  seems  to  have  retained  his 
faith  in  it  to  the  end  of  his  life.    It  was  one  of  the  schemes  of  recon- 
ciliation in  which  the  "days"  of  the  first  chapter  of  Genesis  are 
regarded  as  symbolic  of  indefinite  periods.    We  need  not  in  this 
connection  take  time  for  its  discussion.     All  these  schemes  of 
,  reconciliation  belong  to  an  obsolescent  stage  of  religious  thought. 
I    Intelligent  and  progressive  theologians  to-day  generally  believe 
\  that  the  reconciliation  of  scientific  theories  and  Hebrew  traditions 
J  is  as  unnecessary  as  it  is  impossible,  and  that  Christian  faith  is  in 
)  no  wise  dependent  upon  the  scientific  accuracy  of  Genesis  or  the 
j  inerrancy  of  Scripture  in  general. 

So  long  as  science  is  progressive,  the  study  of  the  works  even  of 
the  greatest  scientists  must  be  largely  a  study  of  errors.  Already 
we  have  outgrown  some  of  the  geological  views  which  Professor 
Dana  held  to  the  end  of  his  life,  and  which  find  expression  even  in 
the  latest  edition  of  the  Manual;  as,  for  instance,  on  the  origin  of 
many  of  the  gneissoid  rocks,  the  extent  of  climatic  oscillations  in 
the  Glacial  period,  the  conditions  of  the  rivers  during  the  forma- 
tion of  post-Glacial  terraces,  the  relations  of  the  igneous  to  the 
sedimentary  rocks  in  the  Trias  of  Connecticut  and  New  Jersey. 
But,  when  we  consider  the  number  and  importance  of  the  fruitful 
ideas  in  geological  science  of  which  we  owe  to  Dana  the  origina- 
tion or  the  elaboration,  and  the  breadth  of  view  and  the  judicial 
temper  and  the  just  sense  of  perspective  which  gave  to  the  System 
of  Mineralogy  and  the  Manual  of  Geology  a  character  so  authori- 
tative, we  shall  feel  like  assenting  to  the  words  of  Professor  John 
W.  Judd,  in  a  letter  to  Professor  E.  S.  Dana  on  the  occasion  of  his 
father's  death:  "Geologists  and  mineralogists  all  over  the  world 
will  feel  that  the  greatest  of  all  the  masters  of  our  science  has 
now  passed  away." 

1  Bibliotheca  Sacra,  vol.  13,  pp.  110-129. 


JAMES  DWIGHT  DANA  265 

The  consideration  of  the  life  and  the  scientific  work  of  James 
Dwight  Dana  has  already  made  us  acquainted  with  some  of  his 
most  marked  traits  of  character.  Yet  it  may  be  worth  while  to 
conclude  this  sketch  with  an  attempt  at  a  picture  of  the  man. 

The  characteristic  that  most  impressed  all  who  came  to  know 
him,  whether  through  the  reading  of  his  works  or  through  personal 
intercourse,  wasjhis  profoun^  sens?  pf  ^th 


With  absolute  sincerity  he  sought  to  know  the  truth  and  to  com- 
municate to  others  the  truth  as  it  had  revealed  itself  to  him.    No 

•to 

pride  in  what  is  wrongly  called  cpn.sisten.cy  wrought  in  him  un- 
willingness to  accept  new  light.  Even  to  extreme  old  age  he 
remained  hospitablejto  new  truth  ancTready  to  change  opinions^ 
it  was  said  ot  a  very  learned  man  that  his  fx>rte  was  science  and 
his  foible  was  omniscience.  Dana  had  no  such  foible.  He  seemed 
to  take  pleasure  in  confessing  ignorance  or  error.  In  the  third 
edition  of  his  System  of  Mineralogy,  when  he  cast  aside  the  clas- 
sification and  the  Latin  binomial  nomenclature  of  the  former 
editions,  he  wrote  in  the  preface:  "X£J^£D££-fc  always  warning 
fickleness.  But  not  to  change  with  the  advance  of  science  is 
worse;  it  is  persistence  in  error.''  He  said  to  me,  in  speaking 
of  the  changes  introduced  in  the  third  edition  of  the  Manual  oj 
Geology,  "When  a  man  is  too,  plH  *n  l«*-a.pTj  h«yj»  rraHy  |p  ffie-  or 
at  least  he  is  not  n't  to  live."  The  frankness  with  which  he  changed 
his  opinions  and  his  teachings  on  the  subject  of  evolution,  when 
past  threescore  years  of  age,  is  a  striking  illustration  of  his  loyalty 
to  truth,  and  of  the  perennial  intellectual  youth  which  is  the  re- 
ward that  truth  gives  to  her  loyal  worshipers.  The  same  exqui- 
sitely delicate  sense  of  truth  which  made  him  so  ready  to  change 
opinions,  made  it  easy  for  him  to  hold  opinion  in  abeyance.  He 
knew  that  he  diclnot  know  some  things?  and  he  would  not  assert 
plllUSllile  LUllJeilui'es  as  truths/  Professor  Farrington  has  pre- 
*  Served  some  ofthe  aphorisms  which  he  uttered  from  time  to  time, 
and  which  might  well  be  adopted  as  maxims  by  all  students  of 
science.1  "I  think  it  better  to  doubt  until  you  know.  Too  many 
people  assert  and  then  let  others  doubt."  "I  have  found  it  best 
i  Journal  of  Geology,  vol.  3,  p.  335. 


266          LEADING  AMERICAN  MEN  OF  SCIENCE 

to  be  always  afloat  in  regard  to  opinions  on  geology."  "I  always 
like  to  change  when  I  can  make  a  change  for  the  better." 

His  liberality  in  the  treatment  of  difference  of  opinion  was 
another  phase  of  his  devotion  to  truth.  Sensible  of  the  liability 
to  error  attending  the  beliefs  of  all  men,  he  recognized  that  only 
by  the  criticism  of  opposing  views  could  truth  be  reached.  The 
pages  of  the  Journal  of  Science  were  always  freely  open  for  the 
presentation  of  views  most  widely  divergent  from  those  of  the 
editor.  "More,"  he  said,  "could  be  learned  by  studying  uncon- 
formities than  conformities/'  and  this  he  believed  to  be  as  true 
"of  unconFormable  opinions  as  of  unconformable  strata.1 

His  loyalty  to  truth  was  in  part  an  intellectual  and  in  part  a 
moral  trait.  Intellectually  it  was  related  to  the  clearness  of  his 
conceptions.  It  is  the  man  who  never  knows  exactly  what  he 
thinks  that  falls  most  easily  into  the  vice  of  saying  something 
different  from  what  he  thinks.  But  Dana's  character  was  intensely 
ethical.  And  with  him  ethics  was  always  sanctified  and  glorified 
religious  faith.  His  view,  alike  of  nature  and  of  human  life, 
ras  profoundly  theistic.  Disloyalty  to  truth  was  infidelity  to 
In  his  scientific  investigation  he  always  felt,  like  Kepler, 
[that  he  was  thinking  God's  thoughts  after  him. 

Dana  was  not  only  a  theist  but  a  Christian.  Religion  was  a 
dominant  principle  in  his  life.  The  influences  of  his  childhood 


home  were  strongly  religious,  and  in  his  early  manhood  he  made 
public  profession  of  Christian  faith.  While  residing  in  New  Haven 
as  assistant  to  Professor  Silliman,  he  became  a  member  of  the 
First  Congregational  Church  in  that  city.  His  letters  written 
amid  the  perils  of  shipwreck  and  cannibals  in  the  Exploring 
Expedition  reveal  the  sincerity  of  his  faith  in  the  providential  care 
of  a  Heavenly  Father.  His  patience  under  the  restraints  imposed 
upon  him  by  the  impairment  of  his  health,  and  the  serene  light 
which  brightened  the  long  evening  of  his  life,  were  in  part  doubtless 
the  effect  of  a  naturally  cheerful  spirit,  but  surely  in  large  part  the 
effect  of  religious  faith.  A  few  months  before  his  death  he  wrote 
to  Professor  J.  P.  Lesley:  "I,  too,  feel  age  encroaching  on  old 
i  Farrington,  loc.  cit. 


JAMES  DWIGHT  DANA  267 

privileges.  I  used  to  have  a  spring  in  my  walk,  and  get  delight 
out  of  it.  But  for  a  little  over  a  month,  owing  to  a  weakening  of 
some  strings,  my  heart  has  compelled  me  to  take  what  I  should 
before  have  called  a  creeping  gait.  Such  encroachments  are 
reminders  that  the  end  is  coming.  But  it  will  be  peace,  rest,  and, 
I  believe,  joy  unending.  Life  were  worth  living  if  it  were  only  for 
the  end."  One  is  reminded  of  Browning's  noble  lines  — 

"Grow  old  along  with  me! 

The  best  is  yet  to  be, 
The  last  of  life,  for  which  the  first  was  made." 

As  a  thinker,  Dana  was  eminently  characterized  by  breadth  of 
view.  Though  facts  might  be,  as  Agassiz  so  nobly  said,  "the 
words  of  God,"  they  were  meaningless  unless  they  could  be  ar- 
ranged in  sentences.  Dana  was  eminently  a  generalizer  and  a 
systematizer.  The  Manual  of  Geology  is  for  every  American 
geologist  the  most  indispensable  book  of  reference  for  its  encyclo- 
pedic array  of  facts.  But  the  general  conception  of  the  meaning 
of  geological  fact  with  which  the  whole  book  is  luminous  is  the 
greater  glory.  If  Dana  sometimes  mistook  analogy  for  identity, 
and  sometimes  grouped  facts  in  a  pseudo-system,  he  only  showed 
"the  defects  of  his  qualities."  The  only  man  who  hasi  ma 
unsound^  generalization  «  fo  fly* 
at  all. 

'There  is  a  certain  intellectual  kinship  between  the  philosopher 
and  the  poet.  The  loftiest  generalizations  of  science  involve  a 
flight  of  imagination  approaching  the  poetic.  The  minds  most 
gifted  with  the  power  to  see  the  scientific  meaning  of  natural  phe- 
nomena are  often  most  keenly  sensitive  to  the  inspiration  of  na- 
ture's beauty.  Some  of  the  descriptive  passages  in  the  Corals  and 
Coral  Islands,  and  gem-like  sentences  which  flash  here  and  there 
from  the  pages  of  the  Manual  of  Geology,  show  a  poet's  sense 
of  nature's  manifold  and  resistless  charm. 

placed  the  flute  and  the 


In^Mslearly  manhood  he  made  some  attempts  at  musical  composi- 
tion.   Among  these  efforts  was  the  music  for  an  ode  to  the  ship 


268          LEADING  AMERICAN  MEN  OF  SCIENCE 

Peacock,  written  during  the  Exploring  Expedition  by  Dr.  J.  C. 
Palmer,  the  surgeon  of  the  ship.  In  later  years,  however,  the 
exacting  demands  of  his  scientific  work  left  little  time  for  the  culti- 
vation of  an  art  which  for  him  could  be  only  a  recreation. 

His  personal  appearance  was  at  once  attractive  and  impressive. 
The  inspiring  flash  of  his  deep  blue  eyes  and  the  exquisite  sweet- 
ness of  his  smile  will  ever  haunt  the  memory  of  all  who  had  the 
privilege  of  his  society.  His  hair,  which  had  been  light  brown  in 
earlier  years,  turned  white  as  he  advanced  in  age,  but  ceased  not 
to  be  abundant.  His  latest  portrait  is  the  most  impressive.  The 
thin,  eager,  vivacious,  kindly  face,  encircled  with  its  halo  of  silver 
hair,  was  inspiring  in  its  dignity  and  sweetness.  For  him  the 
hoary  head  was  a  crown  of  glory.  He  was  of  medium  height  or 
rather  less,  and  light  and  slender.  The  quickness  of  all  his  move- 
ments was  remarkable.  Even  in  old  age  he  walked  uphill  and 
down  at  a  pace  which  the  students  who  went  on  his  geological 
excursions  found  it  easier  to  admire  than  to  emulate.  The  quick- 
ness of  his  physical  movements  was  an  expression  of  the  same 
sensitiveness  of  nervous  organization  which  made  possible  the 
marvelous  vivacity  of  his  mental  working. 

The  restraints  imposed  by  the  failure  of  his  health  isolated  him 
from  society  in  general.  Yet  he  was  delightfully  companionable 
to  those  who  had  the  privilege  of  entering  the  precincts  of  his 
quiet  and  secluded  life.  His  conversation  was  enlivened  with  a 
delicate  humor,  and  in  controversy  he  could  be  sarcastic.  The 
courtesy  which  endeared  him  to  all  who  knew  him  was  the  expres- 
sion of  real  kindness  of  heart.  His  helpful  interest  in  the  work  of 
young  scientific  men  has  left  rich  store  of  grateful  memories.  As 
son,  brother,  husband,  father,  friend,  his  life,  in  all  the  relations 
of  most  intimate  affection,  was  pure  and  gentle. 

f    His  was  a  genius  to  be  admired,  a  character  to  be  reverenced,  a 

Ipersonality  to  be  loved. 


SPENCER  FULLERTON  BAIRD 

ZOOLOGIST 

1823-1887 
BY  CHARLES  FREDERICK  HOLDER 

IN  the  introduction  to  Professor  G.  Brown  Goode's  Bibliography 
of  Professor  Baird,  published  under  direction  of  the  Smithsonian 
Institution,  I  find  the  following  lines  referring  to  his  portrait, 
which  is  slipped  into,  but  not  bound  in  the  volume:  "Professor 
Baird  having  refused  to  allow  it  to  be  inserted  in  this  work,  it 
will  be  distributed  separately  to  as  many  recipients  of  the  Bibli- 
ography as  is  practical  to  reach.  Those  who  received  it  are  re- 
quested to  attach  it  permanently  to  copies  of  the  book." 

Professor  Goode  doubtless  did  not  intend  it,  but  he  could  not 
have  written  a  more  speaking  panegyric  on  the  character  of  Pro- 
fessor Baird  had  he  tried,  nor  can  I  do  better  than  to  quote  it,  to 
illustrate  what  always  impressed  me  as  one  of  the  most  charming 
qualities  of  the  great  naturalist  and  organizer, — his^  modesty. 

This  virtue  does  not  always  indicate  greatness,  but  in  this  in- 
stance it  did,  and  in  an  acquaintance  with  Professor  Baird,  which 
extended  over  many  years,  it  ^  vays  seemed  to  me  to  be  a  domi- 
nant factor  in  all  the  acts  of  his  career. 

In  the  correspondence  of  my  father,  dating  back  to  1846,  I 
find  voluminous  letters  from  Spencer  F.  Baird,  asking  for  Dr. 
Holder's  lists  of  the  birds,  mammals  and  plants  of  Essex  County, 
Massachusetts,  and  offering  his  own  lists  of  the  same  near  Reading, 
Pennsylvania,  in  return,  and  out  of  this  correspondence  grew  a 
friendship  which  held  through  life  between  the  two  men.  My 
first  impression  of  Professor  Baird  came  in  the  fall  of  1859  when 
we  were  on  the  way  to  the  Florida  reef.  Professors  Baird  and 

269 


270          LEADING  AMERICAN  MEN  OF  SCIENCE 

Agassiz  having  induced  Dr.  Holder  1  to  throw  up  a  lucrative  prac- 
tice as  a  physician  in  Lynn,  Massachusetts,  and  go  to  what  in 
all  probability  was  the  most  desolate  spot  within  the  confines  of 
the  government — Garden  Key,  or  Tortugas,  to  study  the  fauna  in 
the  interests  of  science.  We  visited  Professor  Baird  en  route,  and 
I  well  remember  his  strong,  robust  personality,  his  kindly  respon- 
sive nature,  the  evident  nobility  of  his  character,  his  intense 
interest  in  nature,  and  a  certain  sweetness  of  character,  difficult 
to  associate  with  a  man  of  heroic  mold  which  found  its  expres- 
sion in  his  innate  modesty  and  purity  of  life.  If  I  should  be  called 
upon  to  paint  a  word-picture,  to  conjure  up  from  the  imagination 
a  figure  which  should  fully  represent  the  typical  American  as  he 
is,  as  he  should  be,  to  meet  the  ideals  of  a  great  and  patriotic 
people,  the  form  and  features,  the  character,  the  virtues,  and  intelli- 
gence of  Spencer  F.  Baird,  would  insensibly  present  themselves. 
He  was  a  typical  American  of  a  heroic  type,  a  man  of  many  parts, 
(virtues  and  intellectual  graces,  and  of  all  the  zoologists  science 
has  given  the  world,  it  can  doubtless  be  said,  he  was  most  pro- 
lific in  works  of  practical  value  to  man  and  to  humanity. 

Professor  Baird  belonged  to  the  time  of  Agassiz,  Huxley,  Spen- 
cer and  Darwin,  being  but  sixteen  years  younger  than  Agas- 
siz, and  came  upon  the  field  in  a  period  notable  for  its  activity 
in  science  along  many  lines.  Reading,  Pennsylvania,  claims  him 
as  an  honored  son,  where  he  was  born  February  3,  1823,  and  after 
several  years  of  public  schools  he  entered  Dickinson  College,  from 
which  he  graduated  at  the  age  of  seventeen.  Like  Agassiz  and 
Darwin,  he  was  a  born  genius,  with  predilection  for  scientific  pur- 
suits and  all  his  energies  from  early  youth  were  expended  along 
these  lines  of  thought  and  practice. 

Like  Agassiz,  he  studied  medicine,  but  never  completed  his 
studies  although  he  was  given  the  degree  of  M.D.  honoris  causa 
from  the  Philadelphia  Medical  College. 

During  his  early  college  days  he  attracted  wide-spread  attention 
for  his  studies  and  observations  in  Nature,  and  when  the  true  his- 

1  The  late  Joseph  Bassett  Holder,  Curator  of  Zoology  of  the  Museum  of 
Natural  History,  N.  Y.,  from  its  founding  to  1888. 


SPENCER  FULLERTON  BAIRD  271 

tory  of  the  Smithsonian  and  National  Museum  comes  to  be  written 
it  can  be  said  that  the  foundation  of  the  splendid  museums  of 
these  institutions  was  largely  laid  by  young  Baird  in  this  period. 
He  was  a  powerful,  robust  specimen  of  young  manhood,  an  assidu- 
ous collector  with  a  strong  intuition  for  the  work,  and  with  abnor- 
mal perceptions  for  one  of  his  age;  hence  he  accomplished  much 
in  his  tremendous  walks  of  from  twenty  to  fifty  miles  a  day  across 
country,  not  only  laying  the  foundation  for  an  exalted  scientific 
career,  but  for  a  constitution  which  served  him  well  in  later  years, 
when  he  was  obliged  to  renounce  field-work  and  assume  the  head 
of  the  great  lines  of  special  scientific  research  which  his  active  mind 
conceived,  and  brought  into  being.  Professor  Baird  at  this  period 
not  only  made  remarkable  collections  in  a  variety  of  fields,  but 
he  began  an  extraordinary  system  of  exchanges  with  naturalists 
all  over  the  country,  which  later  on  formed  the  basis  for  the  fine 
and  far-reaching  system  of  exchanges  which  became  a  policy  of 
the  Smithsonian  and  National  Museums.  When  he  was  twenty- 
two  years  of  age,  he  was  tendered  the  chair  of  Natural  History  at 
Dickinson  College,  and  later  his  duties  also  included  the  chair  of 
Chemistry  and  up  to  1850  he  was  the  recipient  of  many  honors; 
in  that  year,  when  but  twenty-seven  years  of  age,  being  offered 
the  assistant  secretaryship  of  the  Smithsonian  Institution,  which 
he  accepted. 

The  motto  of  James  Smithson,  the  one  which  he  gave  to  the 
Institution  which  bears  his  name,  was  "the  increase  and  diffusion 
of  useful  knowledge  among  men,"  and  that  Professor  Baird 
adopted  this  and  followed  it  closely  is  evident  to  any  one  who 
will  seriously  study  the  quality  of  his  life-work,  as  it  differs 
from  that  of  almost  any  scientist  of  the  century.  His  original 
researches  were  brilliant  and  far-reaching,  but  his  greatest  work, 
his  best  energies  were  exerted  along  those  lines  that  produce 
results  of  practical  benefit  to  the  human  race.  To  illustrate 
my  meaning,  the  works  of  Agassiz,  his  discoveries  among  fos- 
sil fishes,  his  elaborate  books  on  glaciers  and  their  causes  were 
of  inestimable  value  to  science,  but  Professor  Baird's  work 
in  the  United  States  Fish  Commission  alone  was  of  far  more 


272          LEADING  AMERICAN  MEN  OF  SCIENCE 

practical  and  immediate  value  to  humanity  now  and  in  the 
future. 

His  studies  among  food-fishes,  his  efforts  to  protect  them,  to 
regulate  their  catch,  to  discover  new  grounds  in  the  interest  of 
trade  and  commerce,  carried  on  side  by  side  with  studies  of  a  more 
scientific  character,  were  in  a  direct  line  with  the  sentiment  of 
Smithson:  "  the  diffusion  of  useful  knowledge  among  men."    Pro- 
fessor Baird  was,  like  Agassiz  and  Darwin,  a  strenuous  type,  an 
indefatigable  worker,  and  the  amount  of  work  he  produced  was 
monumental.    In  twelve  years,  the  period  between  1858  and  1870, 
he  produced  works  which  would  have  been  the  normal  output  of 
a  well  rounded  lifetime  of  an  ordinary  man.    During  this  period 
he  wrote  the  catalogue  of  North  American  Serpents;  The  Birds 
of  North  America;  The  Mammals  of  North  America;  The  Review 
of  North  American  Birds;  The  History  of  North  American  Birds 
in  collaboration  with  Brewer  and  Ridgeway,  besides  innumerable 
reports  and  papers  on  a  variety  of  subjects.    For  many  years  he 
was  the  editor  of  Harper's  scientific  department,  and  during  this 
time  he  wrote  the  yearly  encyclopedia  called  The  Annual  Record 
of  Science  and  Industry.    These  titles  tell  at  once  the  story  of  his 
wide  range  of  thought,  of  his  versatility,  and  stamp  him  as  a  natu- 
ralist of  the  widest  range.    It  is  not  unusual  to-day  to  meet  men 
of  the  most  distinguished  attainments  in  certain  branches  of 
zoology,  men  who  are  masters  of  the  cephalopods,  we  may  say, 
f  to  whom  the  fishes  are  a  closed  book.    In  a  word,  naturalists  have 
L  taken  Agassiz's  advice  literally  and  become  specialists,  but  Baird 
\  belonged  to  the  school  that  believed  that  a  naturalist  in  the  broad- 
1  est  sense  should  have  a  good,  even  thorough  knowledge  of  all  the 
j  animal  kingdom  first,  as  a  base  upon  which  to  stand,  this  accom- 
/  plished,  he  should  then  take  up  some  speciality  and  follow  it  to  a 
.  logical  and  exhaustive  finish. 

t  I  have  often  accompanied  Professor  Baird  in  a  round  of  the 
Smithsonian  or  the  Collection  of  the  American  Museum  of  Natural 
History  and  have  been  impressed  by  the  remarkable  range  of  his 
knowledge.  One  afternoon  in  New  York,  we  were  discussing 
taxidermy  with  John  Bell,  the  friend  and  companion  of  Audubon; 


SPENCER  FULLERTON  BAIRD  273 

Bell  was  telling  his  experiences  with  the  great  naturalist  and  how 
he  almost  had  a  serious  break  with  him.  Bell  was  traveling  with 
Audubon,  and  every  day  new  species  were  found;  one  day  Bell 
said  that  he  made  up  a  bird  with  the  head  of  a  snipe,  the  body 
of  something  else,  the  wings  and  legs  of  another.  Audubon  had 
been  away  for  a  week,  and  when  he  returned  Bell  displayed  the 
bird,  saying  that  he  had  mounted  it  at  once  as  it  was  in  bad  con- 
dition. Audubon  was  completely  mystified  and  proportionately 
delighted.  He  described  the  new  bird  and  sent  the  account  to 
Europe,  and  it  was  weeks  before  Bell,  then  a  young  man,  had  the 
temerity  to  confess.  When  he  did  Audubon  fell  into  a  rage,  but 
finally  laughed,  and  acknowledged  the  cleverness  of  his  assistant. 
I  noticed  that  Professor  Baird  was  fully  conversant  with  Bell's 
work,  and  doubtless  had  views  of  his  own  regarding  taxidermy 
which  were  adopted  in  the  National  Museum.  One  could  not 
easily  exaggerate  the  versatility  of  Professor  Baird,  and  the  di- 
versity of  his  interests  is  well  shown  by  even  a  casual  glance  at 
his  journal  while  studying  medicine  in  New  York.  This  was  in 
1848.  One  day  we  find  him  closeted  with  Audubon  studying  his 
drawings,  then  dissecting  a  fox  for  him.  The  next  day  he  is  with 
Le  Conte,  visits  De  Kay,  and  studies  his  report  of  the  zoological 
survey  of  New  York.  The  following  day  we  find  him  studying 
drawing  under  Audubon,  then  he  obtains  bird  skins  from  Peale 
and  sends  him  snails,  fossils  and  coins  in  return. 

In  the  morning  he  is  studying  the  fine  collection  of  Siberian 
fossils  of  T.  A.  Conrads  and  in  the  evening  we  find  him  taking 
tea  with  Isaac  Lea  that  he  may  go  over  this  gentleman's  large 
collection  of  shells;  straws  which  indicate  the  wide  range  of  inter- 
est taken  by  the  young  naturalist;  and  when  it  is  remembered  that 
he  was  noted  for  the  profundity  of  his  investigations  and  the  thor- 
oughness of  his  work  even  to  the  minutest  detail,  the  character 
of  his  life-work  and  its  extent  can  be  realized. 

In  1871,  General  Grant  appointed  Professor  Baird  a  commis- 
sioner of  United  States  Fish  and  Fisheries,  an  honorary  position 
which  added  greatly  to  his  work.  This  move  was  epoch-making 
and  marked  the  recognition  by  the  government  of  Professor 


274          LEADING  AMERICAN  MEN  OF  SCIENCE 

Baird's  views  on  the  economic  value  of  animals,  and  the  necessity 
of  having  laws  to  conserve  animal  life  in  the  interest  of  humanity 
of  to-day  and  to-morrow.  The  appointment  of  Baird  to  this 
unremunerative  position  marked  an  epoch  in  the  development  of 
economic  science  in  America,  and  the  growth  and  evolution  of 
the  United  States  Fish  Commission  alone  shows  better  than  any- 
thing else  the  comprehensive  views  of  its  chief  and  his  remarkable 
grasp  upon  questions  requiring  the  highest  powers  of  a  systema- 
tist.  His  work  showed  that  he  was  an  organizer  and  administra- 
tor of  the  highest  rank.  For  twelve  years  he  devoted  his  energies 
to  the  arduous  labors  of  the  United  States  Fish  Commission.  He 
constructed  the  entire  framework  of  the  new  department,  and  or- 
'ganized  it  under  the  following  general  plan:  "To  prosecute  investi- 
gations on  the  subject  of  the  diminution  of  valuable  fishes  with 
the  view  of  ascertaining  whether  any  and  what  diminution  in  the 
number  of  food-fishes  of  the  coast  and  lakes  of  the  United  States 
has  taken  place,  and,  if  so,  to  what  cause  the  same  is  due  and  also 
whether  any  and  what  productive,  prohibitory  or  precautionary 
measures  should  be  adopted  in  the  premises  and  to  report  the 
same  to  Congress.  It  is  impossible  to  more  than  hint  at  the 
work  of  Professor  Baird  in  this  direction  in  this  limited  paper, 
but  it  was  of  far-reaching  importance,  and  comprised  a  compre- 
hensive plan  to  prevent  the  depletion  of  fishes,  either  in  sea  or 
river. 

Experts  were  sent  all  over  the  country,  hatching  stations  were 
established,  and  available  fish  were  carried  from  one  part  of  the 
country  to  another,  and  the  interests  of  humanity  conserved  in 
many  ways.  As  an  illustration,  the  striped  bass,  which  has  been 
gradually  disappearing  on  the  Atlantic  coast  or  at  least  assuming 
lesser  proportions,  were  introduced  into  the  Sacramento  River  and 
to-day  it  is  the  highest  priced  fish  and  the  best  in  quality  on  the 
Pacific  coast,  being  caught  in  large  quantities  and  an  economic 
factor  of  great  value  to  the  people  of  the  coast.  The  bass  have 
wandered  five  hundred  miles  to  the  south,  having  been  caught  at 
Redondo,  and  Terminal,  opposite  the  island  of  Santa  Catalina 
in  Southern  California.  The  famous  rainbow  trout  of  California 


SPENCER  FULLERTON  BAIRD  275 

was  transplanted  east  and  trout  and  other  fish  hatcheries  estab- 
lished all  over  the  country  to  ensure  an  adequate  supply  of  food- 
fishes  of  all  kinds.  At  the  same  time  vessels  searched  the  sea  for 
new  fishing-grounds  contiguous  to  the  coast  that  would  be  of 
value  to  fishermen,  and  the  new  bureau  made  of  vital  importance 
and  value  to  the  public. 

Professor  Baird  had  the  faculty  of  adapting  himself  with 
unusual  tact  to  subordinate  positions,  and  when  in  command  he 
gave  evidence  of  executive  ability  equally  remarkable.  His 
desire  to  build  up  a  national  museum  which  should  give  the 
United  States  a  standing  second  to  none  resulted  in  the  establish- 
ment and  exploitation  of  a  number  of  expeditions,  and  by  using 
the  government,  its  consuls  and  various  good  offices,  he  suc- 
ceeded in  sending  agents,  collectors  and  expeditions  to  the  four 
quarters  of  the  globe,  which  soon  resulted  in  an  enormous  inflow 
of  matter  in  every  branch  of  science;  no  guilty  man  escaped. 
Even  the  author  of  Home  Sweet  Home  was  aided  to  a  consulate, 
on  the  suggestion  that  he  would  also  scour  the  country  to  which 
he  was  accredited  for  "bugs"  and  other  things,  and  when  he 
departed  for  his  station  he  was  taken  for  a  naturalist  with  cans 
of  alcohol,  fishing-nets  and  various  devices.  For  thirty-three 
years,  from  1850  to  1883,  Professor  Baird  gave  his  strength  and 
ability  to  the  upbuilding  of  the  Smithsonian  Institution,  and 
what  it  is  to-day,  is  mainly  due  to  his  genius  for  work.  For 
twenty-eight  years  he  was  the  principal  executive  officer  of  the 
Smithsonian.  In  training,  tastes,  line  of  thought,  he  differed 
very  materially  from  his  chief,  Professor  Henry,  who  in  turn 
had  little  or  no  fondness  for  zoology,  being  a  physicist.  The 
two  men  represented  the  antipodes  of  thought  and  scientific 
habit,  and  it  is  to  the  credit  of  Professor  Baird  that  his  work 
with  his  chief  was  harmonious .  In  1 8  7  8  upon  the  death  of  Henry , 
he  succeeded  him  as  secretary  of  the  Smithsonian.  Owing  to 
the  diversity  of  tastes  of  the  two  men,  many  of  Professor  Baird's 
ideas  had  been  held  in  abeyance,  but  now,  having  full  rein,  his 
marvelous  executive  and  administrative  ability  became  more 
clearly  apparent,  and  it  was  never  better  illustrated  than  when 


276          LEADING  AMERICAN  MEN  OF  SCIENCE 

he  was  attempting  to  obtain  appropriations  for  the  institutions 
under  his  charge. 

The  salary  was  always  inadequate  to  the  responsibilities  of  the 
situation,  and  it  devolved  on  the  head  to  present  the  claims  and 
induce  Congress  to  make  liberal  appropriations,  a  most  difficult 
and  disagreeable  work  for  a  man  of  his  training,  requiring  tact 
and  diplomacy  of  no  ordinary  character;  but  in  this  work  he  was 
remarkably  successful,  and  his  addresses  to  the  committees  of 
appropriations  of  the  House  and  Senate  were  invariably  received 
with  attention,  and  his  claims  allowed.  He  had  a  remarkable 
faculty  of  inspiring  confidence,  while  his  innate  modesty  gained 
him  friends  among  those  who  believed  they  knew  a  strong  honest 
man,  when  they  saw  one. 

Baird  never  demanded  more  than  was  reasonable,  and  his  policy 
was  to  educate  the  people  in  advance  to  the  necessities  of  the  situa- 
tion, so  that  congressmen  as  a  rule  gave  his  demands  attention 
and  their  hearty  support.  Professor  Baird  never  lost  sight  of  the 
fact  that  while  the  head  of  the  Smithsonian  Institution  he  was  the 
custodian  of  a  public  trust,  and  a  public  servant.  He  was  con- 
scientious in  all  his  methods,  and  always  drove  a  good  bargain  for 
the  government  and  people.  This  was  well  known  in  Congress, 
and  an  influential  senator  is  quoted  as  saying:  "I  am  willing  to 
vote  the  money  asked  for  by  Professor  Baird,  for  he  will  get  two 
dollars  worth  for  every  dollar  we  give  him,  one-half  by  direct  pur- 
chase and  one-half  by  gift."  This  statement  while  true  does  not  do 
full  justice  to  the  remarkable  administrative  skill  of  the  incumbent. 
He  literally  turned  every  branch  of  the  government  into  a  clearing- 
house for  the  National  Museum  and  the  Smithsonian  Institution ; 
the  consulates,  the  agents  of  the  government,  surgeons,  army  offi- 
cers, ministers,  soldiers,  lighthouse  keepers,  revenue  service,  of- 
ficers of  the  army  and  marine  corps,  the  engineer  department, 
no  branch  of  the  service  was  overlooked  by  this  indefatigable 
collector  who  had  the  power  to  interest  everyone  in  his  work  and 
to  induce  them  to  send  in  animals,  plants,  minerals,  fossils,  fruits 
and  flowers,  or  Indian  implements  from  the  localities  in  which 
they  were  stationed,  while  consuls  and  ministers  were  induced  to 


SPENCER  FULLERTON  BAIRD  277 

arrange  for  exchange  with  foreign  nations.  In  this  way  he  had  an 
enormous  corps  of  enthusiastic  helpers  and  aids  which,  if  they 
had  been  paid,  would  have  cost  the  government  enormous  and 
impossible  sums. 

There  is  a  feature  of  the  life  of  Professor  Baird  which  commends 
itself  to  many  naturalists;  this  was  his  influence  over  young  men 
and  the  cordial  aid  he  always  stood  ready  to  give  them.  He  was 
a  remarkable  organizer,  and  as  such  possessed  a  keen  insight  and 
discernment  of  a  remarkable  quality.  He  recognized  the  fact 
that  the  great  museum  he  was  building  up  was  not  for  to-day,  but 
for  all  time,  and  that  new  men  would  be  required  in  the  future 
and  should  be  trained  to  fill  the  positions  in  the  various  depart- 
ments; hence  he  was  always  on  the  lookout  for  young  men  of 
promise  and  marked  ability,  and  scores  of  the  leading  naturalists 
in  the  United  States  to-day  owe  their  prominence  to  his  good  judg- 
ment; and  the  methods  of  study  which  he  advocated.  Dr.  John 
Billings  in  his  life  of  Agassiz,  cites  an  illustration  which  bears  on 
this  point.  The  Institution  had  received  some  interesting  Semitic 
inscriptions,  and  a  young  man  named  Mason  who  had  been 
making  studies  along  these  lines  called  to  see  them.  Professor 
Baird  gave  him  a  hearty  welcome  and  listened  quietly  to  his 
explanations.  When  Mason  completed  his  work  and  was  about 
to  leave,  Baird  said  to  him,  "I  want  you  to  give  up  your  Semitic 
work  and  devote  yourself  to  American  ethnology.  We  have  two 
continents  awaiting  some  one,  you  are  the  one,  you  must  stay 
with  us."  In  this  way  America  gained  one  of  its  greatest  ethnolo- 
gists, and  Dr.  Otis  T.  Mason  is  still  connected  with  the  govern- 
ment Institution — a  living  example  of  the  good  judgment  of  the 
late  secretary. 

The  sagacity,  the  positive  genius  of  his  discernment  is  shown  in 
the  selection  of  his  assistant,  the  late  Professor  G.  Brown  Goode, 
who  was  appointed  to  share  the  administrative  work,  as  his  assist- 
ant, in  1887.  Dr.  Goode  was  already  connected  with  the  Fish 
Commission  and  he  was  given  the  charge  of  the  National  Museum. 
The  two  men  were  alike  in  their  modesty  and  their  many  virtues, 
and  their  only  serious  difference  during  many  years  of  arduous 


278          LEADING  AMERICAN  MEN  OF  SCIENCE 

work  is  related  by  Miss  Baird.  Baird  and  Goode  had  been  work- 
ing along  some  identical  line  in  the  museum  in  which  both  were 
interested.  Baird  in  making  a  report  upon  it  gave  Goode  the 
credit.  Goode  resented  the  implication  and  retorted  with  a  mi- 
nority report  insisting  that  the  credit  belonged  to  his  chief.  This 
perhaps  is  the  only  instance  where  Goode  was  even  suspected  of 
insubordination,  or  where  the  distinguished  master  of  science  was 
known  to  be  unjust,  in  trying  to  shirk  credit  that  doubtless  be- 
longed to  himself,  or  at  least  in  part.  A  more  speaking  commen- 
tary on  the  fine  sense  of  honor  possessed  by  these  two  American 
gentlemen  could  not  be  imagined,  for  which  I  am  indebted  to 
T.  D.  A.  CockerelFs  life  of  Baird,  in  The  Popular  Science  Monthly. 
In  Washington  Professor  Baird's  home  was  the  rendevous  of  men 
of  science  throughout  the  city  and  country  and  the  Sunday  nights 
there  were  looked  forward  to  by  many  with  the  greatest  pleasure. 
The  splendid  building  of  the  National  Museum  is  a  result  of 
Professor  Baird's  business  methods.  Dr.  Hall  tells  the  story.  An 
attempt  had  been  made  to  induce  Congress  to  appropriate  money 
to  build  it  without  result,  but  finally  the  government  consented  to 
make  an  appropriation  for  the  Centennial  at  Philadelphia.  It 
was  not  believed  possible  in  Congress  for  Philadelphia  to  return 
this  money,  it  was  not  believed  that  so  vast  an  exhibit  could  be 
made  a  financial  success,  hence  Congress  in  reply  to  the  importu- 
nities of  Professor  Baird  said,  that  if  Philadelphia  returned  the 
loan,  he  could  have  half  of  it  for  the  much  desired  and  needed 
building.  This  was  enough  for  the  energetic  secretary,  and  he 
called  a  meeting  of  his  subordinates  and  explained  the  situation. 
They  must  lend  all  their  efforts  to  make  the  exhibition  one  that 
would  redound  to  their  credit,  please  the  people  and  Congress. 
This  was  carried  out.  Philadelphia  repaid  the  loan,  and  Congress 
in  1879  voted  the  appropriation  and  the  new  building  was  occu- 
pied in  1882;  hence  it  is  very  evident  that  Professor  Baird  was  the 
father  of  the  National  Museum. 

Professor  Baird  was  a  notable  figure  among  the  men  of  science 
of  his  time,  and  the  world  did  not  fail  to  recognize  his  signal  ability, 
and  the  fact  that  he  stood  at  the  head  of  American  naturalists. 


SPENCER  FULLERTON  BAIRD  279 

As  early  as  1850,  he  was  honored  by  Dickinson  College  with  a 
Degree  of  Doctor  of  Physics,  and  in  1875,  tnat  °f  Doctor  of  Laws 
from  Columbia  University.  In  1878,  he  received  the  silver  medal 
of  the  Acclimatization  Society  of  Melbourne.  In  1879,  the  gold 
medal  of  the  Society  of  Acclimatization  of  France,  and  in  1880,  the 
erster  Ehrenpriez  of  the  International  Fischerei  Ausstellung  at 
Berlin,  given  him  by  his  majesty  the  Emperor  of  Germany.  From 
the  King  of  Norway  and  Sweden  he  received  in  1875  the  decora- 
tion of  Knight  of  the  Royal  Norwegian  Order  of  St.  Olaf. 

Professor  Baird  was  one  of  the  early  members  of  the  National 
Academy  of  Sciences,  and  a  member  of  its  council,  and  but  for 
his  extreme  modesty  many  more  honors  would  have  been  conferred 
upon  him.  He  was  one  of  the  early  secretaries  of  the  Society  of 
the  American  Association  for  the  Advancement  of  Science.  He 
was  a  trustee  in  numerous  institutions,  among  them  the  Corcoran 
Art  Gallery,  and  Columbia  University.  He  was  also  President  of 
the  Cosmos  Society  and  many  scientific  societies  in  this  country. 

Foreign  societies  vied  with  those  of  this  country  in  doing  him 
honor.  He  was  a  member  of  the  Linnaean  Society  of  London,  the 
Zoological  Society,  Honorary  Member  of  the  Linnaean  Society 
of  New  South  Wales,  and  a  member  of  all  the  leading  French, 
German  and  Italian  scientific  bodies.  While  this  short  paper 
can  only  be  considered  a  glance  at  the  fine  picture  presented  by 
this  well-rounded  life,  and  of  necessity  devoted  to  his  public  works 
and  utilities,  I  cannot  pass  by  the  social  and  home  life  of  the  great 
naturalist.  Those  who  knew  him  will  remember  the  genial  hos- 
pitality, the  firm  grasp  of  his  hand,  the  strong  ring  of  his  friend- 
ship, the  fine  sense  of  honor,  and  the  full  measure  of  the  personal 
graces  with  which  nature  had  invested  him. 

To  me  he  was  that  ideal,  the  type  of  the  American  gentleman  of 
the  old  school  which  should  be  perpetuated.  He  was  a  type  to  be 
held  up  as  an  example  of  what  an  American  boy  can  accomplish, 
what  an  American  citizen  can  attain.  His  home  life  was  an  inspira- 
tion, and  its  charm  was  realized  by  a  large  contingent  of  friends 
and  acquaintances  from  many  lands,  who  shared  in  it,  and  the 
graceful  hospitality  dispensed  by  his  gifted  wife  and  daughter. 


280          LEADING  AMERICAN  MEN  OF  SCIENCE 

Professor  Baird  represented  a  sturdy  American  type.  He  came 
of  a  sterling  people  who  came  to  this  country  in  the  seventeenth 
century.  During  the  war  of  the  Revolution  his  grandfather,  the 
Rev.  Elihu  Spencer  of  Trenton,  was  so  potent  a  factor  for  inde- 
pendence that  the  British  put  a  price  on  his  head,  and  both  branches 
of  the  family  were  conspicuous  for  their  services  to  the  people, 
the  state  and  their  country. 

Professor  Baird  married  Mary  Helen  Churchill  in  1846,  the 
only  daughter  of  Sylvester  Churchill,  Inspector  General,  U.  S.  A. 
Mrs.  Baird  was  a  woman  of  high  culture  and  marked  intelligence, 
who  had  a  strong  influence  upon  her  husband's  life  and  work, 
while  his  daughter,  Miss  Baird,  was  in  close  sympathy  and  com- 
panionship with  her  distinguished  father  and  was  a  constant  and 
indispensable  aid  to  him,  in  all  of  his  many  and  diverse  interests. 

The  seaside  laboratory  at  Woods  Hole,  the  summer  head- 
quarters of  the  United  States  Fish  Commission,  was  of  peculiar 
interest  to  Professor  Baird,  as  one  of  the  results  of  his  comprehen- 
sive grasp  upon  the  great  plan  of  zoological  work  in  connection 
with  the  government,  and  it  was  here  that  he  passed  the  last  period 
of  his  active  life.  For  some  time  he  had  been  failing,  and  his 
physicians  ordered  a  complete  rest;  Professor  Langley  assumed 
charge  of  the  Smithsonian,  and  Dr.  Goode  of  the  National  Museum, 
and  the  great  organizer,  the  man  who  had  reared  the  great  insti- 
tution for  the  people,  stepped  aside  into  the  shadow  of  a  coming 
change.  It  was  hoped  that  he  would  rally,  that  the  wasted  ener- 
gies would  be  restored,  but  this  was  not  realized  and  in  the  summer 
of  1887,  with  intellect  still  clear  and  unimpaired,  amid  the  scenes 
of  his  greatest  triumphs  at  what  his  friend  Major  Powell  fitly 
termed  the  greatest  "biological  laboratory  of  the  world,"  reared 
by  his  hands,  planned  by  him,  he  passed  into  history  revered, 
mourned,  honored  as  few  men  have  been  in  this  or  any  land. 

I  shall  not  attempt  to  sum  up  the  value  of  his  work  or  its  relation 
to  the  present  or  to  posterity.  I  have  sounded  his  virtues  in  passing 
as  they  have  occurred  to  me  in  this  brief  review  of  his  life,  but  it 
seems  fitting  to  add  the  words  of  his  well-beloved  friend  and 
colleague,  Professor  G.  Brown  Goode:  "Future  historians  of 


SPENCER  FULLERTON  BAIRD  281 

American  science  will  be  better  able  than  are  we  to  estimate  justly 
the  value  of  the  contributions  to  scientific  literature  which  are 
enumerated  in  the  biography;  but  no  one  not  living  in  the  present, 
can  form  an  accurate  idea  of  the  personal  influence  of  a  leader 
upon  his  associates,  and  upon  the  progress  of  thought  in  his  special 
department,  nor  can  such  an  influence  as  this  well  be  set  down  in 
words.  This  influence  is  apparently  due  not  only  to  extraordinary 
skill  in  organization,  to  great  power  of  application  and  concentra- 
tion of  thought  constantly  applied,  and  to  a  philosophical  and 
comprehensive  mind,  but  to  an  entire  and  self-sacrificing  devotion 
to  the  interests  of  his  own  work  and  that  of  others." 


OTHNIEL  CHARLES  MARSH 

PALEONTOLOGIST 

1831-1899 
BY  GEORGE  BIRD  GRINNELL 

IN  the  scientific  world,  the  name  of  Marsh  stands  forth  as  that 
of  a  man  of  strong  personality,  of  keen  powers  of  observation,  and 
of  high  attainments.  He  brought  to  the  service  of  science  great 
enthusiasm  and  zeal,  and  his  learning  placed  him  in  the  front 
rank  of  American  anatomists  and  paleontologists.  Like  Baird, 
he  was  an  explorer  and  collector,  taking  immense  pleasure  in  his 
expeditions,  in  the  vast  collections  of  vertebrate  fossils  thus  ac- 
quired, and  in  the  elaboration  of  this  rich  material.  His  early 
success  came  through  perseverance,  concentration  of  effort,  and 
hard  and  continuous  labor.  While  others  may  reap  greater  fame 
in  his  chosen  field,  he  was  one  of  the  illustrious  trio  who  blazed 
the  path  to  the  broader  domain,  and  it  is  in  large  measure  due  to 
his  work  as  an  enthusiastic  pioneer  that  vertebrate  paleontology 
has  assumed  its  present  importance  in  America.  When  Marsh 
died,  science  lost  a  devoted  ally,  American  paleontology  an  emi- 
nent leader,  and  Yale  University  a  distinguished  son. 

From  1636  to  1881,  that  branch  of  the  Marsh  family  living 
within  the  bounds  of  old  Salem,  Massachusetts,  had  occupied  but 
four  places  of  residence,  all  in  that  part  of  the  town  afterwards 
called  Danvers,  now  Peabody,  and  in  the  house  last  built  Caleb 
Marsh,  whose  son  furnishes  the  subject  of  this  sketch,  was  born 
November  8,  1800.  In  1827,  he  married  Mary  Gaines  Peabody, 
also  a  native  of  Danvers,  and  a  descendant  of  Lieut.  Francis 
Peabody,  who  established  himself  in  Ipswich  in  1635.  After  his 

283 


284          LEADING  AMERICAN  MEN  OF  SCIENCE 

marriage,  Mr.  Marsh  took  up  his  residence  in  Lockport,  New 
York,  and  here  on  Chestnut  Ridge  his  eldest  son,  Othniel  Charles 
Marsh,  was  born  October  29,  1831,  in  the  eighth  generation  from 
John  Marsh  of  Salem,  the  founder  of  the  family  in  this  country. 

In  his  third  year,  the  boy  had  the  misfortune  to  lose  his  mother, 
an  admirable  woman  whose  influence  in  her  family  was  strong, 
and  who  bequeathed  to  her  son  qualities  that  brought  him  his 
highest  success.  After  his  mother's  death,  with  an  elder  sister  he 
was  taken  by  his  father  to  Danvers  and  placed  in  the  care  of  an 
aunt,  remaining  two  years  in  the  home  built  by  his  ancestors  in 
1766  but  destroyed  by  fire  in  1881.  In  1836,  Mr.  Caleb  Marsh 
returned  to  Lockport,  and  soon  after  married  Miss  Mary  Latten, 
daughter  of  Judge  Latten  of  that  place.  Six  children  were  born 
of  this  second  marriage.  The  family  subsequently  lived  at  Brad- 
ford, Massachusetts,  but  a  few  years  later  returned  to  Lockport, 
where  the  father  died  in  1865. 

Mr.  Caleb  Marsh  was  an  industrious  farmer,  energetic  and 
enterprising,  with  a  keen  interest  in  current  events  and  marked 
ability  in  the  acquisition  of  knowledge.  Being  endowed  with  a 
remarkable  memory,  his  attainments,  it  is  said,  were  such  as  to 
cause  him  to  be  regarded  as  a  sort  of  village  oracle.  He  was, 
however,  both  stern  and  impulsive,  and  not  being  always  in  sym- 
pathy with  the  tastes  of  his  strong-willed  son,  he  occasionally 
inflicted  severe  punishment  on  the  boy.  Brought  up  in  the  country, 
healthy  in  body  and  alert  in  mind,  the  sturdy  lad  was  chiefly 
interested  in  out-of-door  affairs,  and  early  showed  individuality 
and  resolute  character.  Obliged,  like  most  country  boys,  to 
make  himself  useful  when  quite  young,  he  still  found  time  to 
indulge  his  predilection  for  hunting  and  fishing.  The  robust 
health  and  vigorous  constitution  enjoyed  until  within  a  year  or 
two  of  his  death  were  doubtless  due  to  the  open-air  life  of  these 
early  years,  while  to  habits  of  observation  thus  acquired  he  owed 
much  of  his  scientific  success. 

When  Marsh  was  twelve  years  of  age,  his  father  purchased  a 
farm  in  the  western  part  of  Lockport,  close  to  the  Erie  Canal.  At 
that  time  the  enlargement  of  the  canal  was  in  progress,  and  great 


OTHNIEL  CHARLES  MARSH  285 

quantities  of  rocks  were  blasted  out  by  the  workmen.  These 
limestones  contained  various  minerals  and  fossils  which  so  engaged 
the  attention  of  the  boy,  that  under  the  guidance  of  Colonel  Jewett, 
a  collector  in  that  region,  he  soon  became  ardently  interested  in 
these  specimens.  So  determined  and  absorbed  was  he  in  this 
undertaking  that  he  absolutely  refused  to  work  on  his  father's 
farm,  often  spending  whole  days  in  adding  to  his  store  of  minerals, 
and  further  provoking  parental  discipline.  Indeed,  from  this 
time  on  he  seems  to  have  had  no  taste  for  farming. 

At  the  outset  Marsh  met  with  difficulty  in  gaining  an  education, 
for  it  was  during  the  winter  only  that  his  father  permitted  him  to 
attend  school;  yet  inheriting  an  aptitude  for  learning  and  a  reten- 
tive memory,  it  was  necessary  for  him  to  read  his  lessons  over  but 
once  in  order  to  learn  them,  and  he  generally  stood  at  the  head  of 
his  class.  He  must  have  made  good  use  of  his  time,  for  at  the  age 
of  nineteen  he  taught  during  the  winter  in  a  district  school,  receiv- 
ing sixteen  dollars  a  month  for  his  services.  With  this  money,  he 
left  Lockport  for  South  Danvers,  and  spent  the  rest  of  the  year 
1851  at  the  old  Marsh  homestead.  A  diary  kept  during  the 
months  succeeding  his  arrival  begins: 

"  DANVERS,  June  ist,  '51. 

"  Believing  that  a  diary,  with  regular  additions,  will  be  highly 
advantageous  in  improving  my  style  of  writing,  and  penmanship, 
and  also  a  valuable  assistant  to  my  memory,  I  shall  now  commence 
to  note  down  the  most  important  events  of  each  day,  in  as  plain 
and  concise  a  manner  as  possible. 

"O.  C.  MARSH." 

This  diary  shows  that  during  the  formative  period  of  his  life, 
Marsh  displayed  the  same  energy,  industry,  and  enthusiasm 
characteristic  of  his  more  mature  years.  Up  to  this  time,  however, 
there  is  no  hint  of  pursuing  further  study;  yet  later,  through  the 
influence  of  a  maternal  aunt,  who  had  enlisted  the  generosity  of 
her  brother  (Mr.  George  Peabody  of  London)  in  his  behalf, 
Marsh  was  induced  to  enter  Phillips  Academy,  Andover,  and,  late 
in  the  autumn  of  1851,  he  became  a  student  in  the  English  Depart- 
ment of  that  institution.  At  first  he  showed  little  ambition  to 


286          LEADING  AMERICAN  MEN  OF  SCIENCE 

excel  in  his  studies,  although  he  devoted  some  of  the  time  to  sub- 
jects relating  to  natural  history,  spending  his  leisure  in  exploring 
the  surrounding  country.  The  next  winter,  however,  he  took  hold 
in  real  earnest,  confessing  that  during  the  previous  year  he  "was 
playing  backgammon  with  the  boys  half  the  time.  I  changed  my 
mind,"  he  stated,  "during  an  afternoon  spent  on  Dracut  Heights 
[Lowell].  I  resolved  that  I  would  return  to  Andover,  take  hold, 
and  really  study."  This  resolve  he  carried  out  with  characteristic 
energy,  and  while  most  of  the  boys  took  but  three  studies,  Marsh 
took  four.  When  asked  why  he  worked  so  hard,  he  replied:  "To 
make  up  for  lost  time;  I  have  spent  enough  time  shooting  ducks 
to  fit  myself  for  college." 

Previous  to  1852,  he  apparently  came  to  no  decision  regarding 
an  academic  career.  The  encouragement  of  his  father  and  aunt 
coupled  with  the  liberality  of  his  uncle,  Mr.  Peabody,  turned  the 
scales  in  favor  of  a  higher  education,  and  Marsh  finally  declared 
his  intention  of  going  to  Yale  College.  Accordingly,  in  the  spring 
of  1853,  he  began  his  preparation  by  entering  the  Classical  Depart- 
ment of  Phillips  Academy  as  third  junior,  at  the  same  time  con- 
tinuing his  studies  in  natural  science.  Three  years  later  he  was 
graduated  from  that  institution  as  valedictorian  of  his  class.  In 
describing  this  period  in  Marsh's  career,  an  intimate  friend  has 
written: 

"In  Phillips  Academy  there  were  then  two  paths  of  glory;  one 
was  high  standing  in  the  class,  the  other  was  the  Philomathean 
Society,  a  boys'  debating  club. 

"After  Marsh  really  began  to  study,  he  stood  first  in  class  every 
term  without  exception.  He  studied  intensely,  but  tried  to  make 
the  impression  that  he  achieved  his  success  without  any  work  at 
all.  In  the  debating  club,  he  also  took  hold  strongly,  although 
he  was  at  this  time  a  slow  and  halting  speaker,  and  never  in  his 
life  was  anything  of  a  rhetorician.  His  superiority  in  managing 
practical  affairs  soon  impressed  all,  and  he  became  manager  of 
the  society  and  held  the  whole  thing  in  his  hands.  But  he  was 
older  than  the  rest  of  us,  and  was  an  experienced  man  of  the 
world  moving  among  a  set  of  crude  boys. 

"I  remember  an  instance  of  his  foresight  and  shrewd  manage- 
ment—shrewd with  a  touch  of  cunning  in  it.  The  President  of 


OTHNIEL  CHARLES  MARSH         287 

the  society  for  the  third  term  had  been  taken  from  the  senior  class 
for  years,  but  one  year  the  candidate  was  unpopular,  a  revolution 
started,  and  the  middlers  resolved  to  run  a  candidate  of  their 
own.  Marsh,  then  a  junior,  threw  himself  into  the  movement 
with  might  and  main.  He  said  to  me:  'We  can  elect  the  middler 
and  next  year  I  will  be  candidate;  the  precedent  for  the  election 
of  a  middler  will  be  established.'  He  worked  with  much  energy 
and  skill  and  caused  the  election  of  the  middler,  now  Dr.  Alex- 
ander McKenzie  of  Cambridge.  The  next  year  this  President 
left  school,  and  his  place  was  supplied  by  the  Vice-President,  now 
Dr.  Franklin  Carter,  ex-President  of  Williams  College.  Carter 
was  the  best  candidate  the  seniors  had  for  the  third  term  presi- 
dency, and  would  have  been  a  hard  man  for  Marsh  to  beat  But 
Marsh,  with  some  assistance  from  myself,  persuaded  the  Vice- 
President  to  remain  in  his  place  and  perform  the  President's 
duties  during  the  remainder  of  the  term.  Then  all  the  school 
politicians  said  that  Carter  had  practically  been  the  President  for 
a  term,  and  of  course  could  not  run  again.  This  took  him  out  of 
the  way;  the  time  for  nomination  approached;  the  seniors  put  up 
a  weak  fellow,  but  fought  for  him  like  tigers,  not  wanting  their 
class  to  be  defeated.  Marsh  organized  the  middlers  with  great 
skill,  held  the  class  firmly  together,  picked  up  the  loose  votes  ly- 
ing around  the  school,  and  defeated  the  senior  candidate  by  a 
majority  of  one.  The  excitement  in  the  school  was  tremendous, 
and  Marsh  became  a  great  hero.  The  foresight  shown  in  pushing 
in  a  middle-class  candidate  a  year  before,  and  getting  McKenzie 
and  Carter  on  the  shelf  by  previous  elections  so  as  to  provide  a 
weak  opponent  for  himself  was  quite  exceptional  in  one  so  young. 
"  Marsh  entered  his  senior  year  having  gained  all  the  honors  of 
the  Philomathean,  politics  no  longer  pressed  his  mind,  and  he 
gave  his  entire  time  to  study.  He  secured  the  valedictory  and 
gave  the  address  at  the  school  exhibition,  but  his  oration  was  quite 
ordinary.  He  had  made  a  clean  sweep  of  all  the  honors  of  Phillips 
Academy;  there  was  no  desirable  honor  which  he  did  not  get  while 
there." 

During  his  school-days  at  Andover  and  throughout  his  college 
course  he  was  a  devoted  student  of  mineralogy,  and  in  the  summer 
of  1852  displayed  his  unabated  interest  in  the  subject  by  arranging 
the  collection  of  the  Essex  Institute  at  Salem,  his  vacation  being 
given  up  to  this  work  and  to  explorations  in  Massachusetts  and 
New  York  State.  It  was,  .during  these  years  that  various  trips  t9 


288         LEADING  AMERICAN  MEN  OF  SCIENCE 

Nova  Scotia  were  made  for  the  purpose  of  investigating  the  geol- 
ogy of  that  peninsula  and  of  adding  to  his  specimens.  In  1855, 
with  his  intimate  friend  and  classmate  Park,  he  explored  the 
famous  Coal-Measure  section  at  South  Joggins,  where  he  found 
the  remains  of  a  unique  extinct  animal,  Eosaurus,  the  description 
of  which  was  not  published  until  seven  years  later.  This  important 
discovery  eventually  changed  the  course  of  his  scientific  career, 
these  two  vertebrae  serving  as  the  basis  of  his  future  work  in  verte- 
brate paleontology. 

The  summer  preceding  his  entrance  to  college  was  employed 
in  field  work  in  New  Hampshire,  Vermont,  and  New  York, 
most  of  the  time  in  company  with  his  lifelong  friend  Van  Name; 
the  autumn  of  1856  saw  him  a  freshman  at  Yale.  After  his  bril- 
liant career  at  the  academy,  where  he  had  been  the  acknowledged 
leader  in  all  society  matters  and  class  affairs,  it  was  to  be  expected 
that  he  would  meet  with  disappointment  in  his  new  surroundings. 
Some  of  his  college  instructors  were  apparently  less  able  men  than 
those  under  whom  he  had  been  studying,  and  failed  to  arouse  the 
enthusiasm  and  earnestness  inspired  by  his  Andover  professors. 
He  was  also  exhausted  by  the  intense  work  of  the  three  preceding 
years  and  suffered  a  natural  reaction;  his  scholarship  therefore 
fell  below  the  remarkably  high  standard  previously  maintained. 
Socially,  too,  he  soon  discovered  a  marked  difference  between  the 
position  of  leading  senior  at  Andover  and  that  of  freshman  at 
Yale.  He  suffered  some  humiliations,  but  the  experiences  were 
doubtless  beneficial,  for  his  extraordinary  success  at  Andover  had 
perhaps  given  him  too  exalted  an  opinion  of  himself. 

In  July,  1857,  his  uncle  and  benefactor,  Mr.  George  Peabody 
of  London,  visited  him  for  the  first  time  at  New  Haven,  and  ex- 
hibited a  keen  interest  in  his  scientific  pursuits.  This  first  visit 
doubtless  laid  the  foundation  for  Mr.  Peabody's  subsequent  liber- 
ality to  Yale  in  bestowing  the  fund  which  finally  resulted  in  the 
present  Peabody  Museum. 

While  in  college,  Marsh  gave  much  of  his  leisure  to  the  study 
of  the  natural  history  of  various  parts  of  Connecticut,  and  his 
vacations  were  often  spent  in  examining  the  geology  and  paleon- 


OTHNIEL  CHARLES  MARSH  289 

tology  of  Nova  Scotia  and  New  Brunswick,  a  third  scientific  excur- 
sion to  these  provinces  having  been  made  in  1857,  in  company  with 
three  classmates  (Abernethy,  Clay,  and  Post). 

In  1858,  he  again  devoted  the  summer  to  collecting,  this  time  in 
New  York  State;  and  in  the  following  long  vacation,  when  a 
junior,  made  his  fourth  trip  to  Nova  Scotia,  Post  again  accompany- 
ing him.  A  fifth  expedition  to  this  peninsula  took  place  in  1860, 
after  graduation,  and  like  those  preceding  it  resulted  in  valuable 
additions  to  his  scientific  wealth. 

At  the  end  of  his  collegiate  course  he  ranked  eighth  in  a  class 
of  one  hundred  and  nine  members,  the  largest  and  one  of  the  ablest 
classes  that  had  ever  been  graduated  at  Yale.  He  was  given  a 
high  oration  appointment  and  his  attainments  in  classics  were  such 
as  to  entitle  him  to  the  Berkeley  Scholarship,  other  honors  coming 
in  the  guise  of  the  Latin  prize  and  an  election  to  Phi  Beta  Kappa. 

In  accordance  with  the  terms  on  which  the  income  of  the 
Berkeley  Scholarship  is  granted,  Marsh  remained  two  years 
longer  at  Yale  as  scholar  of  the  house,  studying  mineralogy, 
geology,  and  chemistry  at  the  Sheffield  Scientific  School.  This 
graduate  work  led  to  the  degree  of  M.A.,  conferred  by  Yale  in 
1862.  When  the  Civil  War  broke  out,  Marsh  was  offered  a  major's 
commission  in  a  Connecticut  regiment,  but  defective  eyesight 
obliged  him  to  decline  this  military  honor.  During  the  following 
summer  occurred  his  final  trip  to  Nova  Scotia,  where  he  explored 
the  gold  fields,  then  newly  discovered.  His  observations  were 
apparently  the  earliest  published  on  the  subject  and  were  embodied 
in  his  initial  scientific  paper:  "  The  Gold  of  Nova  Scotia  "  (Amer. 
Jour.  Sci.,  Nov.,  1861).  Two  additional  contributions  to  mineral- 
ogy were  subsequently  published,  but  after  1867  his  active  interest 
in  minerals  ceased. 

The  year  1862  witnessed  the  publication  of  an  elaborate  and 
detailed  description  of  the  enaliosaurian  vertebrae  found  in  Nova 
Scotia  in  1855,  the  only  specimens  of  the  kind  ever  discovered. 
Previous  to  the  appearance  of  this  article,  the  fossil  had  been 
brought  to  the  attention  of  the  elder  Agassiz,  who  at  once  recog- 
nized its  value  and  importance,  as  shown  by  his  letter  to  Professor 


290          LEADING  AMERICAN  MEN  OF  SCIENCE 

Silliman,  which  appeared  in  the  American  Journal  of  Science  for 
March,  1862. 

In  the  succeeding  summer,  Marsh  refused  the  professorship 
offered  him  by  his  Alma  Mater,  and  in  November,  1862,  started 
on  his  first  European  trip,  visiting  the  International  Exhibition 
in  London  and  spending  some  time  in  the  various  museums  of 
England.  Later  he  entered  Berlin  University  as  a  student  of 
mineralogy  and  chemistry,  under  G.  and  H.  Rose,  respectively, 
and  of  microgeology  under  Ehrenberg. 

In  the  spring  of  1863,  his  studies  were  continued  at  Heidelberg 
University,  under  the  direction  of  Bunsen,  Blum,  and  Kirschoff, 
and  it  was  during  this  semester  that  he  became  a  fellow  of  the 
Geological  Society  of  London,  his  name  having  been  proposed  by 
Sir  Charles  Lyell.  The  following  summer  was  devoted  to  an 
extended  trip  through  Switzerland,  during  which  a  special  study 
of  glaciers  was  made.  Returning  to  Berlin,  he  began  researches 
in  paleontology,  a  professorship  in  that  branch  of  science  having 
been  instituted  for  him  at  Yale  College.  This  subject  was  dili- 
gently pursued  throughout  the  academic  year,  and  further  prep- 
arations for  his  prospective  work  were  made  in  extensive  collec- 
tions of  books  and  specimens.  He  again  studied  at  Berlin  in  1864 
under  the  eminent  scholars  Beyrich,  Peters,  and  Ehrenberg,  and 
made  various  excursions  to  the  Hartz  Mountains  and  other  parts 
of  northern  Germany.  Several  short  papers  giving  the  results  of 
his  investigations  on  invertebrates  were  presented  to  the  Geo- 
logical Society  of  Germany,  of  which  he  had  then  recently  been 
elected  a  member.  The  results  thus  obtained,  however,  were 
never  fully  published,  and  two  brief  notes  on  annelids,  another  on 
Ceratites,  a  description  of  the  fossil  sponge  Brachiospongia,  and  a 
short  paper  on  the  color  markings  of  Orthoceras  and  Endoceras 
constitute  his  principal  articles  dealing  with  invertebrate  fossils, 
the  series  closing  in  July,  1869,  with  a  paper  on  a  new  species  of 
Protichnites  from  New  York.  This  paper  virtually  ended  his 
miscellaneous  contributions  to  science,  and  henceforth  the  study 
of  vertebrate  paleontology  became  his  sole  aim. 

In  the  summer  of  1864,  Marsh  made  extensive  geological  explo- 


OTHNIEL  CHARLES  MARSH  291 

rations  in  Switzerland  and  the  Tyrol,  which  resulted  in  some  dis- 
coveries of  interest.  Entering  Breslau  University  later,  he  spent 
the  winter  studying  under  Roemer,  Grube,  and  Goeppert.  He 
was  again  at  Berlin,  in  the  spring  of  1865,  but  soon  after  went  to 
Paris,  making  frequent  stops  en  route  in  order  to  visit  various 
museums  and  important  geological  localities.  A  little  later,  while 
working  in  the  British  Museum,  Marsh  became  acquainted  with 
Dr.  Henry  Woodward,  Keeper  of  Geology,  the  warm  friendship 
that  ensued  lasting  throughout  life. 

After  joining  Mr.  Peabody  in  Ireland  for  the  purpose  of  salmon 
fishing,  Marsh  sailed  from  Queenstown  for  Boston  in  August, 
1865,  and  soon  after  his  arrival  in  this  country  began  a  systematic 
study  of  American  geology  as  then  known,  devoting  the  autumn 
to  the  investigation  of  characteristic  localities  in  New  York, 
Ohio,  and  Kentucky. 

That  a  fair  idea  may  be  gained  of  Marsh's  early  environment 
and  subsequent  training,  prominence  has  here  been  given  the 
events  of  his  life  leading  up  to  the  time  of  entering  on  the  career 
in  which  he  was  to  achieve  signal  success  in  many  lines,  and  by 
means  of  which  he  earned  a  place  among  renowned  scholars  in 
the  world  of  science.  He  was  already  a  skilled  explorer,  an  enthusi- 
astic collector,  and  a  promising  scientific  writer  when  he  accepted 
the  Chair  of  Paleontology  at  Yale  College,  to  which  he  was  ap- 
pointed at  Commencement,  1866.  Equipped  with  the  best  prepa- 
ration afforded  by  the  institutions  of  this  country  and  of  Germany, 
and  endowed  with  ability,  energy,  and  perseverance,  he  assumed 
the  duties  of  a  professorship  apparently  the  first  established  in 
that  branch  of  science.  In  the  absence  of  Professor  Dana,  he 
began  his  college  work  by  giving  instruction  in  geology  to  the  senior 
class,  continuing  this  with  succeeding  classes  for  several  years. 
But  he  did  not  wish  to  make  his  professorship  a  teaching  one, 
and  preferred  to  serve  Yale  without  salary  in  order  that  his  time 
might  be  devoted  to  research  and  exploration.  During  the  last 
years  of  his  life,  however,  he  delivered  a  few  lectures  on  vertebrate 
paleontology,  and  also  directed  the  work  of  several  graduate 
students. 


292          LEADING  AMERICAN  MEN  OF  SCIENCE 

A  just  appreciation  of  the  value  and  importance  of  vertebrate 
fossils  had  been  acquired  by  Marsh  during  his  studies  and  obser- 
vations abroad,  and  the  supposed  poverty  of  this  country  in  such 
resources  being  generally  admitted,  his  genius  for  collecting  was 
called  out  anew  to  meet  the  deficiency.  The  years  succeeding 
his  return  from  Europe  had  been  devoted  to  the  careful  study  of 
the  Cretaceous  and  Tertiary  faunas  of  New  Jersey,  from  which 
he  had  obtained  some  fossils  of  interest.  He  had  also  made  scien- 
tific excursions  into  Canada  and  had  investigated  the  geology  of 
the  Connecticut  Valley  and  of  New  York.  But  it  became  apparent 
to  him  while  on  his  first  short  trip  to  the  Rocky  Mountains  in 
1868,  that  paleontological  fields  far  wider  than  any  in  the  East 
existed  in  the  West,  and  he  had  the  genius  to  comprehend  their 
great  possibilities  and  to  realize  what  personal  exploration  of  the 
West  might  yield.  The  initial  journey  over  the  then  newly  opened 
Union  Pacific  Railroad  produced  results  of  no  small  scientific 
interest,  though  not  strictly  pertaining  to  vertebrate  paleontology. 
From  an  alkaline  lake  in  Wyoming,  he  obtained  living  specimens 
of  larval  Siredons,  or  "fish  with  legs,"  as  they  were  called,  the 
remarkable  development  of  which,  observed  by  him  after  his 
return  to  the  East,  called  forth  the  notable  paper:  On  the  Meta- 
morphosis of  Siredon  into  Amblystoma. 

On  this  trip  he  secured  various  interesting  Tertiary  fossils 
that  had  been  thrown  out  during  the  excavation  of  a  well  in  an 
ancient  lake  bed  at  Antelope  Station,  Nebraska.  Among  these 
specimens  were  the  first  of  the  equine  mammals  that  were  destined 
to  play  so  important  a  role  in  the  list  of  Marsh's  brilliant  discoveries. 
The  paper  describing  his  new  and  diminutive  fossil  horse  (Equus 
parvulus)  appeared  in  November,  1868. 

This  preliminary  investigation,  confirming  the  work  of  Leidy 
on  the  vertebrate  material  collected  by  the  Hayden  Survey,  con- 
vinced Marsh  of  the  wonderful  fertility  of  the  western  country  in 
geological  and  paleontological  resources,  and  he  immediately 
began  preparations  for  its  systematic  exploration.  Owing  to  an 
Indian  war  in  1869,  in  the  region  he  wished  to  explore,  his  plans 
were  not  fully  matured  until  the  following  year. 


OTHNIEL  CHARLES  MARSH  293 

Foremost  among  the  successes  of  these  early  days  was  the  series 
of  private  expeditions  originating  in  1870,  with  which  Marsh's 
name  is  so  closely  identified.  In  the  spring  he  made  an  extensive 
trip  through  the  southern  states,  with  special  investigation  of  the 
phosphate  beds  of  South  Carolina  and  the  Cretaceous  deposits 
of  Alabama,  and  on  his  return  to  New  Haven  organized  the  first 
Yale  expedition,  the  party  consisting  of  twelve  students  or  recent 
graduates  under  the  leadership  of  Marsh.  This  party  started  in 
June,  and  after  an  absence  of  five  months  returned  to  New  Haven 
ladened  with  fossil  treasures.  Military  escorts  from  various  posts 
along  the  route  insured  their  safety,  and  explorations  in  nu- 
merous Tertiary  and  Cretaceous  deposits  in  Nebraska,  Colorado, 
Wyoming,  Utah,  California,  and  western  Kansas  resulted  in  the 
discovery  of  over  a  hundred  species  of  extinct  vertebrates  new  to 
science — fossil  horses,  peculiar  ungulates,  carnivores,  turtles,  ser- 
pents, fishes,  aquatic  reptiles,  toothed  birds,  and  a  single  flying 
dragon,  or  pterodactyl. 

During  the  four  years  that  ensued,  Marsh  annually  led  other 
expeditions  scarcely  less  successful  than  the  first,  the  later  parties 
being  made  up  chiefly  of  competent  assistants,  specially  fitted  for 
original  research.  Localities  proving  most  fertile  in  vertebrate 
remains  were  repeatedly  visited,  and  the  fossils  thus  collected 
soon  came  to  be  estimated  by  tons  rather  than  by  hundreds  or 
thousands  of  specimens.  The  difficulties  under  which  Marsh 
labored  and  the  zeal  shown  in  the  pursuit  of  his  aim  may  be 
inferred  from  the  fact  that  the  regions  traversed  were  wild  and 
sometimes  dangerous  from  hostile  Indians.  Sometimes  there  was 
suffering  from  lack  of  food  and  water — the  usual  difficulties  of 
early  western  travel.  There  was  then  but  one  transcontinental 
railroad  in  the  United  States,  and  away  from  that,  travel  through 
a  region  practically  unknown  was  slow  and  difficult  and  involved 
a  great  expenditure  of  time  and  means.  After  1874  no  expeditions 
were  undertaken  on  the  previous  grand  scale.  Although  under 
the  escort  and  protection  of  United  States  troops,  accompanied 
by  Indian  and  local  guides,  the  heavy  expense  of  these  the  first 
private  scientific  expeditions  to  the  Great  West  was  borne  chiefly 


294          LEADING  AMERICAN  MEN  OF  SCIENCE 

by  Marsh,  who  during  his  life  contributed  more  than  a  quarter 
of  a  million  dollars  to  the  sole  object  of  completing  his  paleon- 
tological  collections,  in  the  acquisition  of  which  he  crossed  the 
Rocky  Mountains  twenty-seven  times. 

It  was  on  his  perilous  expedition  to  the  Bad  Lands  near  the 
Black  Hills  in  1874  that  Marsh  was  twice  driven  back  by  the 
Sioux  Indians,  who  supposed  him  to  be  searching  for  gold  rather 
than  for  bones.  In  endeavoring  to  appease  the  savages,  he  held 
various  councils  with  Red  Cloud  and  other  chiefs,  and  at  last 
gained  permission  to  proceed  with  his  party  only  by  promising 
Red  Cloud  to  take  his  complaints,  with  samples  of  his  rations  to 
the  Great  Father  at  Washington.  The  fulfilment  of  this  promise 
together  with  an  exposure  of  the  frauds  that  Marsh  had  seen  prac- 
tised upon  the  Indians  led  to  his  conflict  with  Secretary  Delano 
and  the  Indian  Ring,  in  which  fight  this  department  of  the  Govern- 
ment was  thoroughly  defeated,  subsequent  events  substantiating 
all  the  charges  made  by  Marsh.  Later,  Red  Cloud  presented 
his  benefactor  with  an  elegant  pipe  and  tobacco  pouch  as  tokens 
of  his  gratitude,  sending  with  them  the  complimentary  message 
that  the  " Bone-hunting  Chief"  was  the  only  white  man  he  had 
seen  who  kept  his  promises.  A  full  account  of  Marsh's  contest 
with  the  Indian  Ring  is  embodied  in  A  Statement  of  Affairs  at  the 
Red  Cloud  Agency  and  Report  of  the  Special  Commission  appointed, 
to  investigate  the  Affairs  of  the  Red  Cloud  Indian  Agency,  1875. 

The  large  series  of  equine  mammals  collected  by  Marsh  previ- 
ous to  Huxley's  memorable  visit  to  this  country  in  1876,  not  only 
rendered  the  pedigree  of  the  Equidae  more  complete,  but  was  the 
means  of  convincing  the  British  anatomist  that  the  specimens  in 
the  Peabody  Museum  "demonstrated  the  evolution  of  the  horse 
beyond  question,  and  for  the  first  time  indicated  the  direct  line 
of  descent  of  an  existing  animal."  In  the  life  and  letters  of  his 
father,  Huxley's  son  tells  of  the  visit  to  Yale  and  of  the  western 
wonders  stored  in  its  natural  history  museum. 

After  examining  these  collections  and  weighing  the  evidence 
offered  by  the  fossil  remains,  Huxley  recast  much  of  his  New 
York  lecture  which  treated  of  the  genealogy  of  the  horse  based  on 


OTHNIEL  CHARLES  MARSH 


295 


European  specimens,  and  announced  the  fact  that  "through  the 
Tertiary  deposits  of  Western  America  Marsh  tracked  the  succes- 
sive forms  by  which  the  ancient  stock  of  the  horse  has  passed  into 
its  present  form." 

It  was  during  his  visit  to  New  Haven  in  1876  that  Huxley 
made  the  jocular  drawing  which  accompanies  this  sketch.  He  had 
been  going  over  the  horse  material  in  the  museum  and  at  the  end 


of  a  session  sat  down  at  a  laboratory  table  with  Marsh  to  discuss 
the  fossils  he  had  seen.  As  he  talked,  he  began  to  sketch  with  his 
pencil  on  a  sheet  of  brown  paper,  and  presently  said,  "That  is 
my  idea  of  Eohippus."  Then  suddenly  he  added,  "But  he  needs 
a  rider  "  and  with  a  few  strokes  of  his  pencil  he  completed  the 
sketch  as  it  stands  to-day.  There  was  some  laughter  over  it,  and 
then  Marsh  said,  "But  the  rider  must  have  a  name.  What  shall 


296          LEADING  AMERICAN  MEN  OF  SCIENCE 

we  call  him?"  "Call  him  Eohomo"  said  Huxley,  and  Marsh 
wrote  under  the  sketch  the  legend  as  it  appears. 

The  layman  must  understand  that  all  this  was  pure  fun;  that 
the  name  Eohomo  does  not  exist;  that  in  the  geological  horizon 
from  which  Eohippus  comes  no  tailless  apes  have  yet  been  found. 
The  whole  thing  was  fun,  and  is  not  to  be  taken  seriously. 

On  the  i6th  of  August  Huxley  left  to  join  the  ''Alexander 
Agassiz"  at  Newport  whence  he  wrote  the  following  letter: 

"NEWPORT,  Aug.  19,  1876. 
"To  Mr.  Clarence  King, 

"Mv  DEAR  SIR:  In  accordance  with  your  wish,  I  very  willingly 
put  into  writing  the  substance  of  the  opinion  as  to  the  importance 
of  Professor  Marsh's  collection  of  fossils  which  I  expressed  to  you 
yesterday.  As  you  are  aware,  I  devoted  four  or  five  days  to  the 
examination  of  this  collection,  and  was  enabled  by  Prof.  Marsh's 
kindness  to  obtain  a  fair  conception  of  the  whole. 

"I  am  disposed  to  think  that  whether  we  regard  the  abundance 
of  material,  the  number  of  complete  skeletons  of  the  various 
species,  or  the  extent  of  geological  time  covered  by  the  collection, 
which  I  had  the  good  fortune  to  see  at  New  Haven,  there  is  no 
collection  of  fossil  vertebrates  in  existence  which  can  be  compared 
with  it.  I  say  this  without  forgetting  Montmartre,  Siwalik,  or 
Pikermi — and  I  think  that  I  am  quite  safe  in  adding  that  no  col- 
lection which  has  been  hitherto  formed  approaches  that  made  by 
Professor  Marsh,  in  the  completeness  of  the  chain  of  evidence  by 
which  certain  existing  mammals  are  connected  with  their  older 
tertiary  ancestry. 

"It  is  of  the  highest  importance  to  the  progress  of  Biological 
Science  that  the  publication  of  this  evidence,  accompanied  by 
illustrations  of  such  fulness  as  to  enable  paleontologists  to  form 
their  own  judgment  as  to  its  value,  should  take  place  without 
delay. 

"I  am  yours  very  faithfully, 

"THOMAS  H.  HUXLEY." 

During  the  years  succeeding  1874,  the  rapid  development  of 
the  West  and  the  accessibility  of  many  fossil  fields  to  the  railroads 
made  it  possible  for  small,  less  expensive  parties  to  carry  on  the 
work  of  exploring  for  extinct  vertebrates.  After  1876,  therefore, 
trained  local  collectors  and  others  were  annually  sent  into  the  field 


OTHNIEL  CHARLES  MARSH  297 

by  Marsh,  and  these  men  working  under  his  instructions  packed 
the  accumulated  specimens  on  the  ground  and  shipped  them  to 
New  Haven.  Not  until  1879  did  Marsh  again  personally  visit  the 
West,  but  his  success  in  ferreting  out  new  material  was  undi- 
minished. 

Marsh  was  appointed  Vertebrate  Paleontologist  on  the  United 
States  Geological  Survey,  July  i,  1882.  The  experience  gained  in 
the  preceding  fourteen  years  of  investigation  of  the  geology  and 
paleontology  of  the  Rocky  Mountain  region  and  other  parts  of 
the  West  peculiarly  fitted  him  for  this  position,  which  also  relieved 
him  from  the  personal  expense  attendant  upon  keeping  parties 
in  the  field,  although  during  his  connection  with  the  Survey  he 
devoted  all  the  salary  annually  received  from  that  source  to  the 
advancement  of  the  work  in  hand. 

In  making  collections  for  the  Survey  he  had  two  objects  in  view: 

"  (i)  To  determine  the  geological  horizon  of  each  locality  where 
a  large  series  of  vertebrate  fossils  was  found,  and 

"(2)  To  secure  from  these  localities  large  collections  of  the 
more  important  forms  sufficiently  extensive  to  reveal,  if  possible, 
the  life  history  of  each." 

In  the  first  of  these  objects  he  demonstrated  his  belief  "that 
vertebrate  fossils  are  the  key  to  the  geology  of  the  western  regions 
for  all  formations  above  the  Paleozoic,  and  that  most  stratigraphi- 
cal  questions  can  be  solved  by  them  alone" — a  belief  not  shared 
by  all  paleontologists  and  geologists.  The  second  object  resulted 
in  the  vast  collections  he  procured  through  various  western  parties 
exploring  under  his  direction,  for  during  the  ten  years'  connection 
with  the  Survey  he  personally  visited  the  West  only  four  times. 
From  the  Jurassic,  Cretaceous,  and  Tertiary  formations  he  ob- 
tained series  of  fossils  of  the  greatest  scientific  value,  the  following 
being  especially  noteworthy: 

"  (i)  An  extensive  series  of  gigantic  Dinosaurs  from  Colorado 
and  Wyoming,  the  largest  land  animals  known,  and  found  only 
in  a  single  horizon  of  the  Jurassic. 

"(2)  A  series  of  small  primitive  mammals  from  the  same  lo- 
calities, the  discovery  of  which  was  of  great  importance. 


298         LEADING  AMERICAN  MEN  OF  SCIENCE 

"(3)  A  large  collection  of  the  gigantic  horned  Dinosaurs  of 
the  Laramie,  one  of  the  most  unexpected  discoveries  made  in 
paleontology. 

"(4)  From  the  same  horizon,  a  large  series  of  Cretaceous 
mammals,  a  discovery  of  still  greater  importance,  as  such  fossils 
had  long  been  sought  in  vain  in  various  parts  of  the  world. 

"  (5)  The  discovery  and  full  investigation  of  the  remains  of  a 
new  order  of  gigantic  Eocene  mammals,  the  Dinocerata,  known 
only  in  this  country,  and  from  a  limited  area. 

"  (6)  From  the  Miocene  formation,  a  large  series  of  the  remains 
of  another  group  of  gigantic  mammals,  the  Brontotheridce,  also 
unknown  except  in  this  country;  and  the  investigation  of  all  the 
important  forms  of  this  family." 

When  Marsh  was  forced  to  relinquish  field-work  for  the  Survey 
in  1892,  he  stated  that  during  the  preceding  ten  years  the  number 
of  large  bones  shipped  from  the  West  alone  was  over  one  thousand, 
averaging  more  than  one  hundred  a  year.  Several  hundred  small 
boxes  and  parcels  containing  vertebrate  fossils,  many  of  them  of 
great  value,  were  also  sent  as  part  of  the  same  collections  made  in 
the  West  by  his  division.  The  scientific  value  of  this  entire  collec- 
tion Marsh  believed  to  be  far  greater  than  that  of  any  other  collec- 
tion of  fossils  made  by  any  geological  survey  in  any  part  of  the 
world. 

It  has  been  stated  elsewhere  that  "the  methods  of  collecting 
and  preparing  these  fossils  for  study  and  exhibition  which  he  ... 
introduced  in  the  course  of  his  long  experience  form  the  basis 
very  largely  of  all  similar  work  in  almost  every  paleontological 
laboratory  of  the  world,  and  it  is  a  matter  of  common  remark  that 
nearly  all  the  noted  collectors  and  preparateurs  have  acquired 
their  training  under  his  influence." 

Marsh  surely  deserved  all  the  praise  accorded  him  at  home  and 
abroad  for  his  skill  in  accumulating  the  vast  amount  of  material 
going  to  make  up  the  Government  collections,  as  well  as  those 
belonging  to  him  personally.  A  firm  believer  in  the  theory  of 
evolution,  he  was  naturally  gratified  over  the  light  thrown  on 
geological  history  by  his  western  discoveries,  for  among  the  speci- 
mens acquired  were  many  forms  which  filled  gaps  in  the  paleonto- 


OTHNIEL  CHARLES  MARSH  299 

logical  series.  In  addition  to  the  collection  of  fossil  vertebrates, 
he  made  important  contributions  to  the  geology  and  natural  re- 
sources of  the  regions  explored. 

It  was  the  understanding  with  Survey  officials  that  the  material 
collected  by  Marsh  should  remain  in  his  custody  until  thoroughly 
investigated  and  the  results  published.  After  his  death,  therefore, 
all  specimens  belonging  to  the  Government  were  promptly  trans- 
ferred from  New  Haven  to  Washington.  He  suffered  some  adverse 
criticism  in  his  work  of  collecting  for  the  Geological  Survey,  but 
the  aspersions  cast  on  his  methods  had  no  foundation  in  truth  and 
were  happily  silenced  by  the  correspondence  which  appeared  in 
Science,  January  5,  1900. 

Marsh's  contributions  to  scientific  literature  were  chiefly  the  fruit 
of  three  lines  of  investigation — mammals,  birds,  and  reptiles — 
and  modern  text-books  of  geology  and  paleontology  show  how 
much  he  added  to  the  prominence  now  accorded  American  forms. 
Though  not  an  easy  writer,  he  took  great  pains  to  express  himself 
clearly  and  in  correct  English,  and  his  papers  exhibit  none  of  the 
carelessness  of  expression  that  often  mars  the  literary  work  of 
scientific  men.  The  careful  and  methodical  distribution  of  his 
writings  to  scientific  centers  throughout  the  world  gave  him  emi- 
nence in  practically  every  country. 

His  work  on  the  Tertiary  formations,  both  East  and  West,  was 
productive  of  numerous  papers  on  fishes,  serpents,  birds,  croco- 
diles, lizards,  amphibians,  ungulates,  rodents,  carnivores,  insec- 
tivores,  and  primates.  Most  of  the  species  of  fossil  horses  dis- 
covered by  him  were  described  before  1876,  yet  the  two  editions  of 
Polydactyle  Horses  were  published  in  1879  and  1892,  respectively, 
and  include  the  illustrations  made  for  Huxley  in  1876,  to  show  the 
progressive  adaptation  in  the  teeth  and  limbs  of  extinct  equine 
mammals.  Recent  examples  of  what  Marsh  considered  atavism, 
however,  cited  in  these  papers,  are  not  so  regarded  by  some  noted 
vertebrate  paleontologists,  who  look  upon  them  merely  as  deformi- 
ties or  duplications,  like  the  sixth  finger  in  the  human  hand. 

The  unearthing  of  various  Miocene  ungulates  which  he  called 
Brontotherida  formed  the  basis  of  many  descriptions  of  genera  and 


300         LEADING  AMERICAN  MEN  OF  SCIENCE 

species,  and  enabled  him  to  publish  a  restoration  of  the  principal 
type,  but  the  projected  volume  on  this  peculiar  group  was  never 
completed.  With  a  group  of  horned  animals  nearly  equalling  the 
elephant  in  size — the  gigantic  mammals  from  a  restricted  area  in 
the  Eocene — he  was  more  successful,  and  the  series  of  papers 
descriptive  of  these  forms  culminated  in  1886  in  his  second  mono- 
graph, that  on  the  Dinocerata.  These  huge  beasts  existed  in  great 
numbers  in  central  Wyoming,  where  many  of  them  were  entombed 
and  preserved,  and  more  than  two  hundred  individuals  now 
have  representation  in  the  Yale  collection. 

Rivaling  these  investigations  in  the  Tertiary  deposits  were 
those  made  in  the  Mesozoic  of  the  West,  which  furnished  material 
for  numerous  contributions  to  science  from  1871  on.  Previous  to 
this  he  had  described  a  few  remains  of  birds  from  the  Cretaceous 
of  New  Jersey  and  from  various  Tertiary  deposits  in  this  country, 
but  all  pertained  to  comparatively  small  species  and  apparently 
belonged  to  families  still  existing.  In  a  letter  to  Professor  Dana, 
under  date  of  November  29,  1871,  Marsh  announced  the  dis- 
covery of  his  Kansas  Cretaceous  birds,  although  the  fact  of  their 
possessing  teeth  was  not  learned  until  1873.  This  announcement 
was  soon  followed  by  a  preliminary  description  of  Hesperornis 
regalis.  Subsequent  discoveries  in  the  same  region  in  Kansas, 
accompanied  by  the  investigation  of  accumulating  material  and 
by  the  publication  of  results,  finally  led  to  the  appearance,  in  1880, 
of  Marsh's  first  great  monograph:  Odontornithes,  or  The  Extinct 
Toothed  Birds  of  North  America,  a  work  which  included  complete 
restorations  of  two  distinct  types,  Hesperornis  and  Ichthyornis, 
the  one  possessing  teeth  in  grooves  and  the  other  teeth  in  sockets. 
It  was  published  as  one  of  the  volumes  of  the  U.  S.  Geological 
Exploration  of  the  4oth  Parallel,  of  which  Clarence  King  was  the 
chief.  This  work  subsequently  called  forth  the  following  letter 
from  Darwin: 

"MY  DEAR  PROFESSOR  MARSH:  I  received  some  time  ago  your 
very  kind  note  of  July  28th,  and  yesterday  the  magnificent  vol- 
ume. I  have  looked  with  renewed  admiration  at  the  plates,  and 
will  soon  read  the  text.  Your  work  on  these  old  birds,  and  on 


OTHNIEL  CHARLES  MARSH  301 

the  many  fossil  animals  of  North  America,  has  afforded  the  best 
support  to  the  theory  of  Evolution,  which  has  appeared  within 
the  last  twenty  years.  The  general  appearance  of  the  copy  which 
you  have  sent  me  is  worthy  of  its  contents,  and  I  can  say  nothing 
stronger  than  this. 

"With  cordial  thanks,  believe  me, 

"Yours  very  sincerely, 
"CHARLES  DARWIN." 

In  1 88 1,  Huxley  also  paid  a  tribute  to  Marsh's  discovery  of 
these  ancestral  birds: 

"The  discovery  of  the  toothed  birds  of  the  cretaceous  for- 
mation of  N.  America,  by  Prof.  Marsh,  completed  the  series  of 
transitional  forms  between  birds  and  reptiles,  and  removed  Mr. 
Darwin's  proposition  that,  'many  animal  forms  of  life  have  been 
utterly  lost,  through  which  the  early  progenitors  of  birds  were  for- 
merly connected  with  the  early  progenitors  of  the  other  vertebrate 
classes,'  from  the  region  of  hypothesis  to  that  of  demonstrable 
fact." 

This  notable  volume  on  toothed  birds  taken  in  connection  with 
papers  preceding  and  following  it  made  Marsh  easily  the  first 
authority  on  the  extinct  avian  class  in  America,  and  to-day  most 
of  the  knowledge  of  fossil  birds  in  this  country,  from  the  Jurassic 
to  the  Post-Pliocene,  will  be  found  in  his  writings. 

Western  Kansas  which  in  1870  also  furnished  the  first  ptero- 
dactyls found  on  this  continent,  on  reexamination  yielded  a  large 
series  of  specimens  pertaining  to  forms  of  unusual  size,  which  were 
described  by  Marsh  in  various  papers  from  1871  to  1884.  Not 
until  1876,  however,  was  it  found  that,  unlike  European  forms, 
one  of  the  distinctive  features  of  American  types  of  Pterosauria 
was  the  absence  of  teeth,  indicating  a  new  group  to  which  Marsh 
gave  the  name  Pteranodontia. 

Investigations  on  American  forms  of  this  group  have  recently 
been  continued  at  the  Yale  University  Museum,  and  a  forthcoming 
memoir  on  Pteranodon  furnishes  interesting  proof  of  Marsh's  keen 
insight  and  rare  skill  in  interpreting  the  evidence  afforded  by 
incomplete  specimens.  In  a  discussion  of  the  skull  of  this  flying 
dragon,  it  is  stated  in  regard  to  the  crest:  "In  figuring  this  strange 


302          LEADING  AMERICAN  MEN  OF  SCIENCE 

outgrowth  .  .  .  Professor  Marsh  gave  an  example  of  his  excep- 
tional shrewdness  in  working  from  fragmentary  material.  As 
seen  in  [the]  Plate,  there  remains  only  the  basal  portion  of  the 
great  crest  once  borne  by  the  type  skull.  From  the  evidence  offered 
by  this  he  was  able  to  anticipate  later  discovery  by  figuring  and 
describing  an  enormous  crest  that  formed  about  one-third  the 
entire  length  of  the  skull."  It  was  during  recent  researches  on 
these  pterodactyls  that  the  "enormous  crest"  mentioned  in  the 
quotation  was  disclosed  in  the  matrix.  The  previous  conjectural 
restoration  of  this  part  of  the  skull  by  Marsh  is  of  interest  in  con- 
nection with  a  remark  often  made  by  him  to  one  of  his  graduate 
students:  "Young  man,"  he  would  say,  "remember  that  we  don't 
any  of  us  know  much  about  this  business." 

The  Cretaceous  chalks  of  western  Kansas  further  yielded 
remains  of  numerous  sea-serpents,  described  by  Marsh  in  a  series 
of  papers  also  beginning  in  1871.  Mosasaurs,  though  compara- 
tively rare  in  other  parts  of  the  world,  were  remarkably  developed 
in  eastern  and  western  sections  of  the  United  States.  Marsh 
cleared  up  many  obscure  points  in  the  structure  of  these  marine 
reptiles,  and  was  the  first  to  determine  some  of  the  essential 
characters  of  the  skeleton.  New  genera  and  species  of  other  types 
of  swimming  reptiles  were  established  by  him,  among  which  were 
a  few  forms  allied  to  Ichthyosaurus. 

Although  Marsh's  toothed  birds  and  toothless  pterodactyls, 
together  with  his  fossil  horses,  may  seem  to  constitute  the  more 
brilliant  of  his  discoveries,  yet  probably  the  vertebrates  that  have 
added  most  to  his  fame  are  those  comprised  in  the  reptilian  group 
called  Dinosauria.  Beginning  in  1877,  the  notable  discoveries 
of  these  monsters  of  antiquity  in  both  Jurassic  and  Cretaceous 
deposits  of  the  West,  and  later  in  the  Triassic  of  the  Connecticut 
Valley;  the  description  and  illustration  of  various  suborders, 
families,  genera,  and  species  and  the  portrayal  of  their  many  pe- 
culiar characters  were  brought  out  in  numerous  papers  contributed 
to  the  American  Journal  of  Science,  fourteen  of  which  were  re- 
printed in  the  Geological  Magazine  of  London.  In  the  Dinosaurs 
of  North  America,  his  third  notable  volume,  which  appeared  in 


OTHNIEL  CHARLES  MARSH  303 

1895,  his  long  researches  were  compiled  into  a  synoptic  whole, 
yet  the  affinities  and  detailed  treatment  of  these  enormous  lizards 
were  reserved  for  the  final  monographs  Marsh  purposed  to  write. 
The  volume  under  discussion,  however,  serves  as  the  only  monu- 
ment of  this  class  of  his  writings  extant.  The  work  accomplished 
on  other  volumes  is  mainly  represented  by  numerous  costly  plates, 
including  restorations  of  principal  forms.  The  Dinosaurs  found 
in  the  Triassic  of  the  Connecticut  Valley  offered  Marsh  the  needed 
evidence  that  some  of  the  so-called  bird  tracks,  of  which  Yale 
possesses  a  fine  series,  were  made  by  carnivorous  forms  of  these 
terrestrial  reptiles,  the  larger  species  of  which  were  bipedal. 
Unfortunately,  much  of  the  knowledge  of  this  difficult  group  of 
extinct  reptiles  was  held  in  Marsh's  remarkable  memory;  his  notes 
generally  are  not  sufficiently  amplified  to  make  them  available 
to  others. 

It  will  thus  be  seen  that  while  Marsh  wrote  a  great  number  of 
what  he  considered  preliminary  papers  and  published  three  large 
volumes,  he  left  a  vast  amount  of  unfinished  work.  Although  he 
published  various  general  articles  late  in  his  career,  after  1895  ne 
seemed  to  lose  sight  of  the  fact  that  time  was  passing,  and  that  his 
indebtedness  to  the  Government  in  the  way  of  volumes  on  which 
large  sums  of  money  had  been  expended  for  illustrations  was  still 
uncanceled.  Habits  of  procrastination  grew  on  him,  and  this  fact 
combined  with  a  lack  of  facility  in  readily  formulating  his  thoughts 
will  account  for  most  of  his  literary  failures.  Some  provision  for 
the  continuation  of  his  uncompleted  work  was  made  in  the  eighth 
article  of  his  will,  which  reads: 

"The  sum  of  Thirty  thousand  dollars  which  by  the  Terms  of 
the  First  Family  Trust  of  Mr.  George  Peabody,  founded  in  1867, 
I  am  authorized  to  dispose  of  by  will,  I  hereby  give  and  bequeath 
to  said  Corporation  of  Yale  University  in  New  Haven  to  be  ex- 
pended by  the  Trustees  of  said  Peabody  Museum  in  preparing 
for  publication  and  publishing  the  results  of  my  explorations  in 
the  West." 

After  1892  no  large  collections  were  added  to  the  Yale  series 
until  1898,  when  active  field-work  was  resumed  under  the  direction 


304         LEADING  AMERICAN  MEN  OF  SCIENCE 

of  Marsh.  A  few  fossil  cycads  had  been  previously  received  at 
New  Haven,  but  the  bulk  of  this  collection  was  made  during  the 
summer  and  autumn  of  the  latter  year.  More  than  seven  hundred 
of  these  fossil  trunks  came  from  the  Black  Hills  alone,  and  these 
taken  in  connection  with  the  specimens  since  added  constitute 
the  most  important  series  of  the  kind  in  the  world.  A  few  verte- 
brates were  also  obtained  at  about  this  time,  notably  the  unique 
dinosaurian  type  Barosaurus  and  various  remains  pertaining  to 
the  largest  turtles  yet  discovered. 

But  Marsh  did  not  confine  his  efforts  entirely  to  the  making  of 
vast  collections;  he  devoted  much  of  his  energy  to  the  proper 
housing  of  them.  During  a  visit  to  his  uncle  at  Homburg  in  1863, 
he  broached  the  subject  of  establishing  a  museum  of  natural 
history  at  Yale,  and  before  the  visit  was  over  Mr.  Peabody  had 
given  him  assurance  that  the  building,  with  proper  endowment, 
should  become  a  reality. 

When  in  England,  he  had  been  strongly  urged  by  Sir  Charles 
Lyell  to  make  a  special  study  of  the  antiquity  of  man  in  America. 
With  this  in  view,  he  commenced  researches  in  the  sepulchral 
mounds  of  Ohio.  While  thus  engaged  the  idea  of  a  museum  of 
archaeology  and  ethnology  at  Cambridge  presented  itself  to  his 
mind,  and  his  plans  for  establishing  scientific  museums  at  both 
Harvard  and  Yale  were  fulfilled  in  1867,  when  he  assisted  Mr. 
Peabody  in  organizing  gifts  to  these  universities  and  to  the  Pea- 
body  Academy  of  Science  at  Salem.  In  connection  with  the  first 
of  these  Marsh  was  offered  a  professorship  at  Cambridge,  a 
second  offer  coming  in  1874,  both  of  which  were  declined.  He 
was  appointed  a  trustee  of  the  other  two  foundations  and  became 
Curator  of  the  Yale  Geological  Collections,  a  position  retained 
throughout  life.  The  right  wing  of  the  Yale  museum  was  com- 
pleted in  1875,  and  much  to  his  regret  remained  the  only  portion 
of  the  building  to  be  finished  during  his  regime,  although  he  used 
every  effort  to  overcome  this  adverse  condition. 

Early  in  1898  by  deed  of  gift  Marsh  presented  all  his  scientific 
collections,  including  vertebrate  and  invertebrate  fossils,  fossil 
footprints,  recent  osteology,  American  archaeology,  minerals,  and 


OTHNIEL  CHARLES  MARSH  305 

fossil  cycads,  to  Yale  University.  The  acceptance  of  this  splendid 
gift  was  recorded  in  the  following  resolutions  offered  by  the  Cor- 
poration of  the  University: 

"YALE  UNIVERSITY, 

"January  13,  1898. 

"The  President  and  Fellows,  having  received  a  deed  of  gift 
from  Professor  Othniel  C.  Marsh,  presenting  to  the  University 
his  very  valuable  collections  now  in  the  Peabody  Museum,  which 
represent  the  labor  of  many  years  on  his  part  and  also  the  ex- 
penditure of  a  large  amount  from  his  personal  fortune,  desire,  as 
they  accept  the  gift,  to  communicate  to  him,  and  to  place  on  record, 
an  expression  of  their  grateful  acknowledgment  of  his  generosity. 

"In  this  grateful  acknowledgment  they  are  confident  that  all 
the  graduates  and  friends  of  Yale  will  unite,  when  they  learn  of 
this  most  recent  manifestation  of  his  long-continued  interest  in 
the  University,  even  as  they  already  appreciate  the  unselfish  de- 
votion of  his  time,  his  talents,  and  his  energies,  for  more  than 
thirty  years,  to  the  scientific  researches  which  have  given  him  such 
personal  distinction  and  have  brought  such  renown  to  the  institu- 
tion. 

"TIMOTHY  DWIGHT,  President." 

Although  the  collection  of  vertebrate  fossils  combined  with  that 
of  recent  osteology  constitutes  by  far  the  most  important  of  these 
gifts  to  Yale,  yet  science  is  also  indebted  to  Marsh  for  his  zeal  in 
gathering  together  a  large  amount  of  material  pertaining  to  archae- 
ology and  ethnology.  On  his  return  from  Europe  in  1866,  he  saw 
the  importance  of  beginning  a  collection  of  American  antiquities, 
and  both  before  and  during  his  western  expeditions  large  numbers 
of  ancient  implements  found  their  way  to  New  Haven.  Purchases 
were  also  made  from  collectors  in  various  states,  and  through  the 
liberality  of  friends  of  Yale  many  specimens  have  at  various 
times  been  added.  No  provision  was  originally  made  for  installing 
specimens  of  this  kind  in  the  museum,  and  a  room  on  the  fourth 
floor  was  devoted  to  this  purpose,  but  its  size  combined  with  other 
disadvantages  precludes  the  possibility  of  making  an  adequate 
display  of  the  large  number  of  objects  acquired,  which  have  been 
greatly  augmented  since  Marsh's  death.  Notable  in  this  collec- 
tion are  the  thousands  of  specimens  from  the  Province  of  Chiriqui, 


306         LEADING  AMERICAN  MEN  OF  SCIENCE 

Republic  of  Panama.  These  antiquities  came  mainly  from  prehis- 
toric graves  and  represent  the  culture  of  Indians  who  in  this 
respect  ranked  next  to  the  Aztecs  and  the  Peruvians  under  the 
Incas.  The  collection,  said  to  be  by  far  the  most  valuable  and 
complete  of  the  kind  owned  by  any  institution,  has  never  been 
placed  on  exhibition,  although  received  at  the  museum  years  ago. 
Another  noteworthy  series  in  the  archaeological  collection  is  made 
up  of  a  large  number  of  Egyptian  scarabs,  which  an  eminent 
authority  has  recently  declared  the  most  comprehensive  in  America. 
In  recognition  of  his  genius  and  of  his  zeal  for  science,  Marsh 
won  distinction  both  in  this  country  and  abroad.  The  apprecia- 
tion of  his  ability  as  a  collector  has  steadily  grown,  until  he  holds 
a  foremost  place  among  makers  of  vast  scientific  collections. 
What  has  not  been  so  fully  recognized  is  his  great  ability  as  an 
anatomist  and  the  unerring  certainty  with  which  he  seized  on  the 
characteristic  features  of  a  specimen  and  its  relation  to  other 
forms. 

Marsh  was  either  a  correspondent  or  an  honorary  member  of 
many  learned  societies,  the  last  honors  of  this  kind  coming  to  him 
in  1898,  when  he  was  elected  correspondent  of  the  Institute  of 
France  (Academy  of  Sciences)  and  foreign  member  of  the  Geolog- 
ical Society  of  London.  Harvard  University  conferred  upon  him 
the  degree  of  LL.D.  in  1886,  and  he  received  an  honorary  Ph.D. 
from  Heidelberg  University  the  same  year.  At  the  time  of  his 
death  he  still  held  the  position  of  Honorary  Curator  of  Vertebrate 
Paleontology  in  the  United  States  National  Museum  and  of  Verte- 
brate Paleontologist  on  the  Geological  Survey. 

He  became  a  member  of  the  American  Association  for  the 
Advancement  of  Science  in  the  summer  of  1866,  while  attending 
the  Buffalo  meeting,  reading  his  first  paper  before  that  body  at 
Burlington  the  following  year.  Two  years  later  he  was  elected 
Secretary  of  the  Association,  and  in  1876  its  Vice-President, 
succeeding  the  next  year  to  the  position  of  presiding  officer.  His 
celebrated  Nashville  address  on  the  Introduction  and  Succession 
of  Vertebrate  Life  in  America  was  delivered  at  the  time  of  his 


OTHNIEL  CHARLES  MARSH  307 

retirement  as  Vice-President,  and  on  leaving  the  office  of  Presi- 
dent he  made  a  second  address:  History  and  Method  of  Paleonto- 
logical  Discovery.  In  the  first  of  these  he  showed  his  great  knowl- 
edge of  vertebrates  by  tracing  in  a  masterly  way  the  introduction 
and  succession  of  the  various  types  then  known  from  this  country, 
beginning  with  the  lowest  Devonian  fishes  and  culminating  in  the 
highest  primate — Man;  while  in  the  second  he  gave  a  comprehen- 
sive account  of  the  progress  of  the  science  of  paleontology  from 
earliest  times. 

In  1877,  Marsh  was  awarded  the  first  Bigsby  medal  by  the 
Council  of  the  Geological  Society  of  London.  In  transmitting 
this  medal  to  Marsh,  the  President  of  the  Geological  Society  said 
in  part: 

"The  Medal  is  given  in  recognition  of  the  great  services  which 
Prof.  Marsh  has  rendered  to  the  palaeontology  of  the  Vertebrata. 
He  has  distinguished  himself  by  studying  the  fossil  remains  of 
nearly  every  great  group  of  the  Vertebrata  from  the  Palaeozoic, 
Cretaceous,  and  Cainozoic  strata  of  the  New  World.  The  field 
of  his  research  has  been  immense,  but  it  has  been  very  correct; 
and  his  descriptive  and  classificatory  palaeontological  work  indi- 
cates his  effective  grasp  of  anatomical  details,  and  his  great  power 
as  a  comparative  osteologist." 

Marsh's  first  paper  before  the  National  Academy  of  Sciences 
was  read  by  invitation  at  Northampton  in  1869,  an^  treated  of 
his  new  western  fossils.  He  was  not  elected  to  membership  in 
the  Academy,  however,  until  1874.  Four  years  later  he  became 
Vice-President,  and  in  May,  1878,  on  the  death  of  the  first  Presi- 
dent, Professor  Henry,  he  served  as  Acting  President.  While 
substituting  in  the  later  capacity,  the  first  instance  occurred  in 
which  the  advice  of  the  Academy  was  asked  by  direct  act  of  Con- 
gress. This  action  related  to  a  consideration  on  the  part  of  the 
Academy  of  "the  methods  and  expenses  of  conducting  all  surveys 
of  a  scientific  character  under  the  War  or  Interior  Department, 
and  the  surveys  of  the  Land  Office,"  with  a  request  to  report  to 
Congress  "a  plan  for  surveying  and  mapping  the  Territories  of 
the  United  States  on  such  general  system  as  will,  in  their  judgment, 


308         LEADING  AMERICAN  MEN  OF  SCIENCE 

secure  the  best  results  at  the  least  possible  cost."  By  virtue  of 
his  office,  Marsh  held  the  chairmanship  of  the  committee  appointed 
to  carry  out  the  wishes  of  Congress,  and  that  portion  of  the  report 
concerning  geological  surveys  and  the  appointment  of  a  commis- 
sion on  public  lands  became  a  law  in  1879.  Thus  originated  the 
present  Geological  Survey,  with  the  designation  by  the  Chief 
Executive  of  Clarence  King  as  first  Director. 

In  1883,  Marsh  succeeded  Professor  W.  B.  Rogers  as  presiding 
officer  of  the  National  Academy  of  Sciences,  and  for  twelve  years 
he  led  the  deliberations  of  that  body  with  dignity  and  ability.  He 
took  pride  in  the  fact  that  from  the  time  of  his  election  as  Vice- 
President  in  1878,  he  never  absented  himself  from  a  meeting  of 
the  Academy — a  record  that  probably  few  members  can  boast. 
His  resignation  took  effect  in  April,  1895. 

One  of  the  most  distinguished  honors  received  by  Marsh  was 
the  Cuvier  Prize,  awarded  him  by  the  Institute  of  France  (Acad- 
emy of  Sciences)  in  1898 — a  prize  given  every  three  years  for  the 
most  remarkable  work  either  on  the  animal  kingdom  or  on  geology. 
In  submitting  the  report  setting  forth  Marsh's  claim  to  this  dis- 
tinction, Professor  Gaudry,  after  rapidly  reviewing  the  researches 
of  the  principal  American  savants  in  paleobotany  and  in  inverte- 
brate and  vertebrate  paleontology,  announced  that  it  was  proposed 
to  award  the  prize  in  1898  to  one  of  the  paleontologists  of  the 
United  States,  Professor  Marsh,  who  "  stands  unquestionably  the 
chief  of  the  constellation  of  distinguished  men  who  are  giving  their 
attention  to  fossil  vertebrates."  l  The  various  phases  of  Marsh's 
work  were  dwelt  upon  in  some  detail,  the  report  closing  as  fol- 
lows: 

"It  is  impossible  to  enumerate  here  all  the  creatures  which  the 
hammer  of  Mr.  Marsh  has  drawn  from  the  rocks  and  which  his 
genius  has  restored.  The  discoveries  which  are  now  being  made 
in  the  United  States  and  in  Patagonia  open  immense  horizons  be- 
fore paleontologists.  We  believe  that  we  are  honoring  the  mem- 
ory of  Cuvier  in  awarding  the  prize  which  bears  his  name  to 

1  "  reste  le  seule  chef  inconteste  de  la  pleiade  d'hommes  distingues  qui 
s'occupe  des  vertebras  fossiles," 


GTHNIEL  CHARLES  MARSH  309 

Prof.  Marsh,  one  of  the  most  skilful  of  those  who  are  carrying  for- 
ward the  science  whose  foundations  he  laid."  l 

Marsh  was  a  frequent  visitor  to  England,  and  attended  many 
meetings  of  the  British  Association  for  the  Advancement  of  Science, 
where  he  read  numerous  papers  on  his  western  researches.  He 
paid  a  last  visit  in  1898,  having  been  appointed  a  delegate  from 
this  country  to  the  International  Congress  of  Zoologists  at  Cam- 
bridge, subsequently  attending  the  Association  meeting  at  Bristol. 
He  traveled  extensively  on  the  continent,  and  attended  various 
congresses,  both  geological  and  zoological,  in  1897  going  as  far 
as  Russia  as  one  of  the  delegates  to  represent  the  United  States 
Geological  Survey  at  the  International  Geological  Congress  at  St. 
Petersburg. 

The  conditions  of  Marsh's  early  life  tended  to  the  formation 
and  growth  of  certain  peculiarities  which  at  times  laid  him  open 
to  criticism.  When  he  entered  college  he  was  years  older  than  his 
classmates — a  man  when  they  were  boys.  He  had  not,  at  the 
formative  period  of  his  life,  been  thrown  with  other  boys  of  his 
own  age,  and  subjected  to  that  process  of  attrition  by  which 
angles  are  worn  off.  Absorbed  in  his  work,  he  never  married, 
and  thus  missed  that  further  smoothing  off  of  roughness  which 
family  life  is  likely  to  bring. 

His  indomitable  will  brought  him  success  and  in  later  life,  like 
many  successful  men,  he  was  sometimes  impatient,  intolerant, 
and  even  autocratic.  He  took  the  ground  that  a  region  first  in- 
vestigated by  him  became  his  by  right  of  preemption — a  notion  that 
caused  him  numberless  difficulties  and  brought  little  sympathy. 
He  was  a  man  of  strong  convictions — when  attacked  he  would 
fight — and  there  were  years  in  his  scientific  life  when  he  permitted 

1  "II  est  impossible  de  rappeler  ici  toutes  les  creatures  que  le  marteau  de 
M.  Marsh  a  tirees  des  rochers  et  que  son  genie  a  restaurees.  Les  decouvertes 
qui  se  font  en  ce  moment,  soit  aux  Etats-Unis,  soit  en  Patagonie,  ouvrent  de- 
vant  les  paleontologistes  des  horizons  immenses.  Nous  croyons  honorer  la 
memoire  de  Cuvier  en  attribuant  le  prix  qui  porte  son  nom  au  professeur 
Marsh,  un  des  plus  habiles  continuateurs  de  la  Science  dont  il  a  jete  les 
fondements." 


310          LEADING  AMERICAN  MEN  OF  SCIENCE 

controversy  and  the  struggle  for  priority  to  mar  his  happiness 
and  hinder  his  work.  His  fossils  were  priceless  in  his  eyes,  and  he 
guarded  them  with  extremest  care.  A  man  of  less  enthusiasm  or 
of  more  liberal  mind  might  have  turned  over  certain  subjects  to 
able  assistants;  Marsh's  failure  in  this  respect  caused  in  several 
cases  a  rupture  of  friendly  relations.  If  his  nature  had  been  more 
conciliatory — if  he  had  really  cared  more  for  peace — these  troubles 
might  have  been  avoided.  He  had  one  or  two  unfortunate  experi- 
ences with  visitors;  hence  was  somewhat  suspicious  and  disposed 
to  think  that  strangers  were  trying  to  overreach  him.  On  the  other 
hand,  he  was  a  man  of  kindly  nature,  extremely  jolly,  and  very 
fond  of  a  joke  even  though  it  were  directed  against  himself.  He 
was  generous,  also,  in  the  sense  that  if  anyone  made  a  special  effort 
in  his  behalf  he  would  in  turn  go  out  of  his  way  to  assist  the  one 
who  had  aided  him.  Marsh's  peculiarities  were  many,  some  of 
them  being  so  marked  as  to  give  his  enemies  an  opportunity  to 
speak  ill  of  him,  which  sometimes  resulted  in  grave  injustice. 

His  foibles  and  failings,  however,  sink  into  insignificance  when 
compared  with  the  many  rare  qualities  that  made  his  life  success- 
ful. To  a  notable  degree,  he  possessed  the  faculty  of  making 
even  minor  things  seem  worth  while;  he  lent  to  his  surroundings 
a  strength  and  dignity  that  were  almost  unique.  Since  his  death, 
the  grievances  of  most  of  those  who  worked  under  him  have  been 
forgotten  in  admiration  for  his  achievements.  He  had  but  few 
close  friends  in  America,  yet  his  relations  with  men  of  science  in 
England  were  of  the  friendliest  sort;  however,  Huxley's  recorded 
estimate  of  him,  that  he  was  "a  wonderfully  good  fellow,  full  of 
fun  and  stories  of  his  western  adventures,"  will  find  hearty  indorse- 
ment in  many  minds,  at  home  as  well  as  abroad.  Marsh  was  a 
keen  judge  of  men,  could  instantly  select  the  one  that  he  felt  would 
be  of  most  use  to  him,  and  was  seldom  at  fault  in  his  estimate  of 
character.  He  was  efficient  and  shrewd,  and  an  aggressive  leader. 
The  quiet  humor  displayed  in  parts  of  the  diary  to  which  refer- 
ence has  been  made  constituted  one  of  his  most  prominent  charac- 
teristics. 

The  last  years  of  his  life  were  shadowed  by  adversity,  yet  to  the 


OTHNIEL  CHARLES  MARSH  311 

world  he  showed  only  his  cheerful  and  optimistic  spirit.  The 
financial  stress  of  the  early  nineties  reduced  his  private  income  and 
unfavorable  legislation  at  Washington  cut  off  his  salary  from  the 
Geological  Survey,  even  his  allotment  from  this  source  being  finally 
discontinued.  So  straitened  did  he  become  for  means  with  which 
to  carry  on  his  researches  that  he  finally  mortgaged  his  property, 
and  in  1896,  although  he  had  served  Yale  for  thirty  years  without 
compensation,  he  was  at  his  own  request  placed  on  the  list  of 
salaried  officers  of  the  University.  The  vote  passed  by  the  Presi- 
dent and  Fellows  at  this  time  shows  the  estimation  in  which  Marsh's 
services  were  held: 

"The  Corporation  of  Yale  University  desires  to  congratulate 
Professor  Othniel  Charles  Marsh  upon  arriving  at  the  thirtieth 
anniversary  of  his  professorship  in  health  and  strength,  and  to 
wish  him  a  continuance  of  the  same  for  many  years. 

"And  they  further  desire  to  express  to  him  their  appreciation 
of  and  their  profound  sense  of  obligation  for  all  that  he  has  ac- 
complished in  the  advancement  of  science,  as  well  as  for  the  repu- 
tation of  the  University,  by  creating  and  building  up  under  its 
auspices  the  department  of  Paleontology  and  by  generally  carry- 
ing on  the  elaborate  and  expensive  system  of  original  research,  ex- 
ploration and  discovery,  by  which  he  has  enlarged  the  boundaries 
of  scientific  knowledge  and  has  brought  honor  to  the  country,  to 
the  University,  and  to  himself." 

An  English  friend,  in  describing  Marsh  in  1882,  pictured  him 
as  "of  middle  height,  with  a  robust  well-knit  frame  and  massive 
head.  Ruddy  and  of  a  fair  countenance,  he  has  blue  eyes  which 
often  twinkle  humorously."  Coming  of  a  hardy  race,  he  possessed 
a  vigorous  physique  and  his  consciousness  of  health  was  always 
vivid.  Long  after  middle  life  he  could  endure  an  amount  of  phys- 
ical strain  that  would  have  tired  a  younger  man,  and  it  was  only 
within  a  year  or  two  of  his  death  that  faith  in  his  own  length  of 
days  deserted  him.  While  in  Russia  in  1897,  trouble  in  the  leg 
developed,  virtually  depriving  him  of  the  daily  walks  so  necessary 
to  his  health.  Lack  of  exercise,  therefore,  combined  with  the 
disturbance  in  the  arterial  system  from  which  he  suffered,  rendered 
him  unfit  to  cope  with  the  disease  that  caused  his  death.  He  was 


312          LEADING  AMERICAN  MEN  OF  SCIENCE 

seized  with  a  chill  on  the  eleventh  of  March,  1899,  while  working 
at  the  museum;  pneumonia  rapidly  developed,  and  in  a  week, 
almost  before  those  closest  to  him  knew  of  his  serious  illness,  he 
was  dead.  The  tribute  of  a  colleague  in  the  University  fittingly 
closes  the  story  of  his  useful  life: 

"The  details  of  his  work  were  so  little  known  by  his  fellow 
townsmen  and  his  personality  was  so  unusual  that  an  inadequate 
impression  might  easily  exist  as  to  the  value  of  his  intellectual  at- 
tainments and  the  importance  of  what  he  accomplished.  From 
the  time  when  ...  he  collected  minerals  on  the  shores  of  the 
Bay  of  Fundy  to  the  closing  weeks  of  his  life,  he  was  ever  the  same 
eager,  earnest  student  of  science,  amassing  collections  in  many 
different  lines  with  an  indomitable  energy  characteristic  of  him- 
self. 

"Deprived  of  family  ties  which  to  most  men  bring  the  chief 
happiness  of  life  and  with  but  few  close  personal  friends,  he  was 
ever  bright  and  cheerful  and  devoted  himself  to  science  with  a 
single  heart.  It  is  certainly  not  strange  that,  situated  as  he  was, 
his  intense  personal  ambition  should  have  been  often  self -centered. 
His  standard  of  scientific  accuracy  was  high  and  he  demanded 
the  same  of  others;  he  was  none  too  tolerant  of  those  who  opposed 
his  views  and  who  encroached  upon  a  field  which  he  felt  he  had 
preoccupied.  But  whatever  may  have  been  his.  personal  pecul- 
iarities, Professor  Marsh  was  a  great  man;  great  in  the  thorough- 
ness of  his  intellectual  attainments,  great  in  his  grasp  of  the  broad 
principles  of  evolution,  great  in  the  tireless  energy  of  his  spirit. 

"Death  came  to. him  suddenly  before  he  had  completed  all  the 
labors  he  had  undertaken.  .  .  .  Notwithstanding  it  is  given  to 
few  men  to  erect  such  a  monument  as  he  has  done." 


EDWARD  DRINKER  COPE 

PALEONTOLOGIST 

1840-1897 
BY  MARCUS  BENJAMIN 

IN  the  history  of  American  science  there  will  be  found  the  names 
of  many  who  have  devoted  their  lives  to  the  study  of  natural  his- 
tory. Indeed,  according  to  Goode,  Henry  Harriot  who  accom- 
panied Sir  Walter  Raleigh  on  his  voyage  to  Virginia  in  1584  and 
thereafter  compiled  a  Brief  and  True  Report  of  the  New  Found 
Land  of  Virginia,  which  is  full  of  interest  to  the  naturalist,  was 
"the  first  English  man  of  science  who  crossed  the  Atlantic."  He 
is  described  as  "a  man  of  wide  culture  ...  a  botanist,  zoolo- 
gist, and  anthropologist."  From  his  time  to  the  present  there 
have  been  many  who  have  followed  in  his  footsteps  and  among 
them  the  names  of  Say,  Leidy,  Dana,  Agassiz,  Baird,  and  New- 
berry  stand  out  conspicuously  in  the  front  rank,  like  planets  among 
the  stars. 

As  knowledge  grew,  men  more  and  more  devoted  themselves 
to  specialities,  and  from  naturalists  there  were  differentiated  those 
who  studied  living  forms  and  those  who  occupied  themselves  with 
fossil  life,  and  then  zoologists  and  paleontologists  were  recognized, 
and  now'  with  the  everlasting  growth  of  knowledge  there  are 
ornithologists,  ichthyologists,  conchologists,  lepidopterists,  coleop- 
terists,  carcinologists,  and  many  others  who  devote  themselves 
exclusively  to  some  one  of  the  almost  infinite  gradations  into  which 
natural  science  has  resolved  itself. 

The  student  of  history  who  recalls  the  era  when  the  great  trans- 
continental surveys  were  made  to  locate  a  favorable  possible 
railway  route  that  should  extend  from  the  Atlantic  to  the  Pacific 

313 


314          LEADING  AMERICAN  MEN  OF  SCIENCE 

will  remember  that  each  of  these  surveys  was  accompanied  by  a 
scientist  whose  duties  were  the  collection  of  objects  in  natural 
history.  These  railway  surveys  were  succeeded  by  the  four  great 
scientific  surveys  which  flourished  in  the  seventies  of  the  nine- 
teenth century  and  were  consolidated  into  the  United  States 
Geological  Survey  in  1879,  and  the  practice  of  employing  trained 
scientists  in  connection  with  their  work  continued.  Among  those 
who  have  gained  high  reputation  in  consequence  of  this  develop- 
ment no  one  occupies  a  higher  place  than  Edward  Drinker  Cope 
of  whom  also  more  than  of  his  contemporaries,  it  may  be  said 
that  he  "possessed  those  brilliant  mental  qualities  which  are  the 
natural  endowment  of  genius."  It  is  the  pleasant  mission  of  the 
following  pages  to  present  his  contributions  to  science. 

The  Cope  family  is  a  distinguished  one  in  the  annals  of  Phila- 
delphia, and  in  the  charming  romances  that  Dr.  Weir  Mitchell  has 
written  so  delightfully  about  the  early  days  in  the  Quaker  City, 
the  name  Cope  frequently  occurs.  He  tells  pleasantly  in  one  of 
his  books  how  during  an  epidemic  of  yellow  fever  in  1793,  Mr. 
Cope  heroically  remained  in  Philadelphia  when  flight  was  con- 
sidered the  best  policy  and  devoted  his  attention  to  the  victims  of 
the  plague.  It  was  Mr.  Cope  also  who  four  years  later  when  the 
smallpox  raged  accepted  the  task  of  ministering  to  the  wants  of 
the  destitute  and  carried  food  to  the  homes  of  the  sufferers. 

According  to  the  records  of  the  family  Oliver  Cope  came  from 
Wiltshire,  England,  about  1687,  and  settled  at  Naaman's  Creek 
in  the  extreme  north  of  what  is  now  the  state  of  Delaware.  The 
original  grant  of  land  is  dated  September  8,  1681,  and  recites 
that  William  Penn  of  Worminghurst  in  the  county  of  Sussex, 
Esquire,  in  consideration  of  five  shillings,  etc.,  conveys  to  Oliver 
Cope  of  Awbry  in  the  county  Wilts  tailor,  two  hundred  and  fifty 
acres  of  land  within  the  province  of  Pennsylvania. 

Oliver's  grandson  was  Caleb  Cope,  who,  in  1761,  removed  to 
Lancaster  and  later  settled  in  Philadelphia.  While  serving  as 
burgess  of  Lancaster  in  1776,  the  unfortunate  Major  Andrd,  who 
had  been  captured  at  St.  Johns,  Upper  Canada,  by  General  Mont- 
gomery and  sent  with  other  British  prisoners  to  Lancaster,  arrived 


EDWARD  DRINKER  COPE  315 

in  the  little  town.  In  spite  of  the  popular  excitement  against  these 
prisoners  of  war  Caleb  Cope  offered  them  an  asylum  in  his  home 
and  protected  them  against  the  vengeance  of  a  mob  which  attacked 
his  residence.  He  is  said  to  have  been  a  member  of  the  Society 
of  Friends  and  an  opponent  of  the  war  against  England.  His  son, 
Thomas  Pirn  Cope,  began  a  commerical  career  in  Philadelphia 
in  1786,  and  four  years  later  he  established  himself  in  the  business 
of  importing.  His  success  was  very  great  and  soon  warranted 
him  in  purchasing  his  own  vessels.  This  venture  likewise  proved 
successful,  and  in  1821  he  inaugurated  the  first  line  of  packets 
that  ran  between  Philadelphia  and  Liverpool,  which  then  con- 
tinued until  about  the  beginning  of  the  Civil  War.  His  sons, 
Henry  and  Alfred,  succeeded  to  the  business,  and  in  time  the  firm 
assumed  the  name  of  Cope  Brothers. 

Edward  Drinker  Cope  was  the  eldest  son  of  Alfred  Cope  and 
his  wife,  Hannah  Edge.  He  was  born  in  Philadelphia  on  July  28, 
1840,  while  his  father  was  yet  active  in  business,  but  as  the  child 
grew  to  boyhood  the  family  removed  to  Germantown  and  there 
the  father,  who  was  a  man  of  cultivated  literary  taste,  freed  from 
the  active  interests  of  his  commercial  pursuits,  lived  in  ease  and 
devoted  himself  largely  to  the  bringing  up  of  his  son. 

At  a  very  early  age  the  boy  manifested  an  active  and  intelligent 
interest  in  nature;  when  only  about  seven  years  old  during  a  sea 
voyage  to  Boston  with  his  father  he  is  said  to  have  kept  a  journal 
which  he  filled  with  drawings  of  "  jelly  fish,  grampuses  and  other 
natural  objects  seen  by  the  way."  When  eight  and  a  half  years 
old  he  made  his  first  visit  to  the  Museum  of  the  Academy  of  Natu- 
ral Sciences  of  his  native  city;  this  visit  was  "on  the  2ist  of  the 
zoth  mo.  1848"  as  entered  in  his  journal.  He  brought  away  care- 
ful drawings,  measurements  and  descriptions  of  several  larger 
birds,  as  well  as  of  the  skeleton  of  an  ichthyosaurus.  His  drawing 
of  the  fossil  reptile  bears  the  explanatory  legend  in  Quaker  style: 
"two  of  the  sclerotic  plates:  look  at  the  eye,  thee  will  see  these  in 
it."  At  the  age  of  ten  he  was  taken  upon  a  voyage  to  the  West 
Indies. 

His  contemporary  and  lifelong  friend,  Dr.  Theodore  Gill,  in 


316          LEADING  AMERICAN  MEN  OF  SCIENCE 

a  memorial  address  delivered  before  the  American  Philosophical 
Society  said: 

"While  a  school  boy  he  relieved  his  studies  of  the  classics  and 
the  regular  course  in  which  boys  of  his  age  were  drilled  by  ex- 
cursions into  the  fields  and  woods.  Reptile  life  especially  interested 
him,  and  he  sought  salamanders,  snakes  and  tortoises  under  rocks, 
stones,  fallen  trees  and  layers  of  leaves,  as  well  as  in  the  ponds 
and  streams  of  his  vicinage.  The  trophies  of  his  excursions  were 
identified  from  descriptions  in  the  works  in  which  they  were 
treated,  as  well  as  by  comparison  with  identified  specimens  in  the 
museum  of  The  Academy  [of  Natural  Sciences  in  Philadelphia]." 

Professor  Henry  F.  Osborn,  his  intimate  friend  and  literary  exec- 
utor, writes,  "the  principal  impression  he  gave  in  boyhood  was  of 
incessant  activity  in  mind  and  body,  reaching  in  every  direction  for 
knowledge,  and  of  great  independence  in  character  and  action." 

His  academic  education  was  received  in  the  Westtown  Academy, 
a  Quaker  institution,  where  he  came  under  the  influence  of  Dr. 
Joseph  Thomas  and  from  whom  he  obtained  a  passing  knowledge 
of  Latin  and  Greek.  In  a  letter  written  at  this  time  he  says: 

"I  caught  a  large  water  snake  or  water  wampum  as  they  are 
called  here — one  of  the  Colubers  in  Brandywine,  and  brought  it 
home.  It  was  about  as  long  as  my  leg,  but  very  thick  for  its 
length,  being  somewhat  more  than  two  inches  in  diameter  in  one 
place.  I  afterwards  found  that  it  had  eaten  a  large  bull  frog 
which  somewhat  increased  its  natural  thickness.  The  people  told 
me  it  would  bite  me,  for  everybody  almost  about  here  thinks 
water  wampums  are  poisonous,  and,  indeed  the  way  it  struck  at 
me  scared  me  a  little,  but  I  soon  convinced  myself  it  was  not,  by 
examining  its  mouth  which  wanted  fangs,  and  as  all  non- venomous 
have,  it  had  four  rows  of  small  teeth  in  its  upper,  and  two  in  its 
lower  jaw,  and  two  rows  of  scales  under  the  tail." 

He  does  not  appear  to  have  had  any  instruction  in  any  biological 
science  and  had  no  regular  collegiate  training,  although  for  a  year 
he  studied  anatomy  in  the  laboratories  of  the  University  of  Penn- 
sylvania under  the  illustrious  Leidy,  but  after  all,  according  to 
Osborn,  "it  is  evident  that  he  owed  far  more  to  paternal  guidance 
in  the  direct  study  of  nature  and  to  his  own  impulses  as  a  young 


EDWARD  DRINKER  COPE  317 

investigator  than  to  the  five  or  six  years  of  formal  education  which 
he  received  at  school." 

Thus  the  boy  grew  to  manhood,  and  of  his  appearance  at  that 
time  Doctor  Gill  describes  him  as: 

"A  young  man,  nineteen  years  old,  about  5  feet  9  or  10  inches 
high,  with  head  carried  somewhat  backwards  and  of  rather  ro- 
bust frame,  stood  before  me;  he  had  an  alert,  energetic  manner, 
a  pronounced,  positive  voice,  and  appeared  to  be  well  able  to  take 
his  part  in  any  trouble.  His  knowledge  was  by  no  means  con- 
fined to  herpetology,  but  covered  a  wide  range  of  science,  and  his 
preliminary  education  had  been  good." 

In  1859,  he  visited  Washington  and  joined  the  group  of  young 
naturalists  who  were  associated  together  in  the  Smithsonian  Insti- 
tution under  Professor  Baird.  Their  names  are  best  recalled  by  the 
following  stanza,  improvised  by  one  of  their  number,  after  a  hotly 
contested  argument  on  some  disputed  point  in  natural  history: 

"Into  this  well  of  learning  dip  with  spoon  of  Wood  or  Horn, 
For  students  Meek  and  holy  silver  spoons  should  treat  with  scorn. 

"If  Gabb  should  have  the  gift  of  Gill 

As  Gill  has  gift  of  Gabb, 
'Twould  show  a  want  of  judgment  still 
To  try  to  Cope  with  Meek." 

In  Washington  he  found  not  only  congenial  associates  but  also 
a  place  of  abode,  and  he  tells  in  a  letter  of  how  he  "located  on  the 
sixpenny  side  of  Pennsylvania  Avenue  near  Sixth  St."  at  $25 
a  month. 

Later,  on  February  i,  1861,  he  writes: 

"I  have  come  to  the  conclusion  that  Washington  is  decidedly 
a  second-rate  place.  Though  there  are  two  professors  and  a  doc- 
tor in  the  boarding  house,  they  are  all  unsatisfactory  trifling 
people." 

Of  his  associates  he  says: 

"Two  fairer  men  than  Profs.  Henry  and  Baird  are,  however, 


3i8          LEADING  AMERICAN  MEN  OF  SCIENCE 

hard  to  find.  Theodore  Gill,  a  native  of  New  York,  with  whom 
I  have  been  acquainted  for  a  considerable  length  of  time,  is  an 
honorable  and  sincere  young  man,  so  far  as  I  know  him,  though 
by  education  different  enough  from  myself." 

His  first  scientific  publication  was  in  1859,  when  he  contributed 
a  paper  "On  the  Primary  Divisions  of  the  Salamandridae,  with 
descriptions  of  Two  New  Species"  to  the  Proceedings  of  the 
Academy  of  Natural  Sciences  in  Philadelphia.  In  this  paper  he 
presented  important  modifications  of  the  systems  previously 
adopted  in  this  country.  He  continued  his  study  of  the  serpents 
and  made  a  catalogue  of  the  specimens  contained  in  the  museum 
of  the  Academy  in  which  he  employed  an  improved  system  of 
his  own. 

During  the  five  years  that  followed  he  published  frequent  papers, 
describing  new  species  and  giving  synopses  or  brief  monographs 
of  various  genera  of  lizards  and  anurous  amphibians.  In  these 
early  papers  he  manifested  the  independence  and  critical  spirit 
which  were  so  characteristic  of  him  later.  On  this  point,  Gill  says: 

"Bold  as  was  the  criticism  of  such  herpetologists  as  Dumeril, 
Bibron,  and  Glinther,  it  was  justified  by  the  facts,  and  the  young 
author's  conclusions  have  received  the  endorsement  of  the  best 
succeeding  herpetologists,  including  even  the  latest  author  criti- 
cised." 

His  only  deviation  from  this  special  subject  of  reptiles  was  in 
1 86 1,  when  he  made  a  verbal  communication  on  some  cyprinoid 
fishes,  and  again  in  1862  when  he  described  a  new  shrew  caught 
by  himself  in  New  Hampshire.  Again  I  quote  from  Gill,  who 
writes: 

"He  never  lost  his  interest  in  herpetology  and  continued  to 
the  end  of  his  life  to  devote  much  attention  to  that  department. 
His  studies  extended  to  every  branch  of  the  subject,  covering  not 
only  specific  details  and  general  taxonomy,  but  also  the  consid- 
eration of  anatomical  details,  the  modifications  of  different  organs, 
geographical  distribution,  chronological  sequence,  genetic  relations, 
and  physiological  consequences." 


EDWARD  DRINKER  COPE  319 

The  time  at  the  Smithsonian  passed  quickly  and  was  well  spent 
in  hard  work — work  that  was  to  tell  so  splendidly  in  the  years  yet 
to  come.  Partly  as  a  rest  from  overwork  and  partly  for  study,  he 
went  to  Europe  in  1863,  and  for  a  year  he  visited  the  great  museums 
of  England,  France,  Holland,  Austria,  and  Prussia,  systematically 
examining  the  collections  of  reptiles  in  the  chief  centers  of  science. 

The  broadening  influence  of  foreign  travel  soon  manifested 
itself,  and  although  herpetology  was  his  first  love  and  continued 
to  be  the  favorite  branch  of  science  to  his  life's  end,  he  began  to 
develop  wider  interests  and  to  extend  his  studies  to  various  other 
subjects. 

The  Civil  War  was  in  progress  during  his  visit  to  Europe,  and 
of  special  interest,  therefore,  in  this  connection  is  the  following 
quotation  from  one  of  his  letters. 

"I  hear  nothing  but  bad  news  from  the  United  States.  It  is 
plain  that  we  cannot  carry  on  those  works,  or  achieve  the  results 
which  require  the  united  systematic  efforts  of  a  whole  people 
without  a  strong  government  which  shall  absolutely  rule;  but  it  is 
plain  also  that  such  arrangements,  as  far  as  I  can  see  here,  are 
the  moral  ruin  and  intellectual  degradation  of  a  great  many 
people;  hence  the  conclusion  that  the  results  to  be  obtained  are 
not  worth  the  loss  incurred  in  obtaining  them;  hence  the  request 
of  the  Jews  for  a  king  instead  of  a  judge,  was  a  mistake.  But  as 
things  are,  I  suppose  we  shall  have  a  strong  government;  what  my 
duty  would  be  in  case  I  were  drafted,  I  am  as  much  in  the  dark 
about  as  ever.  It  seems  wrong  to  withdraw  myself  from  any 
participation  in  government  at  all — yet  if  one  begins  it  is  hard  to 
stop  short  of  armies." 

Soon  after  his  return  to  the  United  States  he  was  called  to  the 
professorship  of  Natural  Science  in  Haverford  College  and  for 
three  years,  from  1864  to  1867,  ne  lectured  in  that  institution. 
It  was  while  holding  that  chair  that  in  1865  he  married  Anne  Pirn, 
daughter  of  Richard  Pirn  of  Chester  County,  a  distant  cousin. 

Meanwhile  his  papers,  which  were  increasing  in  number  and 
which  for  the  most  part  were  published  in  the  Proceedings  of  the 
Academy  of  Natural  Sciences,  more  and  more,  according  to  Osborn, 
"showed  the  impulse  of  philosophical  spirit,  complete  familiarity 


320         LEADING  AMERICAN  MEN  OF  SCIENCE 

with  the  history  of  opinion  and  marked  power  of  generalization." 
For  the  most  part  they  dealt  with  recent  herpetology  and  ichthy- 
ology and  were  demonstrative  of  the  main  evolution  principles  in 
these  groups. 

In  1865  he  first  began  to  extend  his  studies  among  the  mamma- 
lia, especially  of  the  Cetacea,  both  recent  and  extinct,  of  the  Coast 
Tertiary.  It  was  also  in  this  year  that  he  described  a  fossil  verte- 
brate for  the  first  time — the  Amphibamus  grandiceps  from  the 
Coal  Measures.  Thereafter  for  many  years  he  devoted  his  chief 
attention  to  exploration  and  research.  During  a  portion  of  this 
time  he  made  his  home  in  Haddonfield,  New  Jersey,  a  place  six 
miles  southeast  of  Camden,  and  there  he  began  the  accumulation 
of  those  great  collections  of  specimens,  the  descriptions  of  which 
form  perhaps  his  greatest  contributions  to  science.  In  1866  he 
began  his  studies  of  the  fossil  vertebrates  found  in  the  Cretaceous 
marls  of  New  Jersey,  where  he  procured  the  remains  of  dinosaurs, 
"describing  especially  the  carnivorous  Lcelaps  and  grouping  these 
reptiles  into  three  great  suborders,  Orthopoda  (Hadrosaums  and 
Iguadori),  Goniopoda  and  Symphopoda  (Megalosaums,  Lcdaps, 
Compsognathus)"  This  was  essentially  his  introduction  into  the 
field  of  vertebrate  paleontology,  "in  which,  until  his  death,  he  was 
considered  by  many  as  foremost  in  America,  if  not  in  the  world." 

In  1867  ne  examined  the  Eocene  and  Miocene  beds  in  the  south- 
ern part  of  Maryland  between  the  Potomac  and  Patuxent  rivers, 
and  there  made  a  collection  of  fossil  vertebrates  and  mollusks. 
There  he  found  a  dolphin  with  a  long  cylindrical  muzzle  which 
he  describes  as  "one  of  the  most  singular  known  ...  as  it  is 
new,  species,  genus  and  family."  A  year  later  he  traveled  through 
the  marl  country  with  Prof.  O.  C.  Marsh  and  he  writes: 

"Prof.  Marsh  has  studied  and  traveled  in  Europe  for  three 
years,  and  is  very  familiar  with  their  invertebrate  fossils.  We 
have  procured  three  new  species  of  Saurians,  apparently  of  known 
genera;  one  a  Mosasaurus,  one  a  Gavial,  and  one  of  large  size  is 
very  near  the  Cetacea." 

He  visited  the  mountain  region  of  North  Carolina  in  1869  and 
of  this  trip  he  writes  from  Raleigh,  on  December  n: 


EDWARD  DRINKER  COPE  321 

"I  spent  four  weeks  east  of  this  city  investigating  the  marl 
region,  and  collecting  its  fossils.  This  region  is  mostly  Miocene, 
and  the  formation  is  more  largely  developed  here  than  in  any  part 
of  the  United  States,  excepting  perhaps  Nebraska." 

Adding  also: 

"I  had  pretty  good  success  in  my  fossil  collecting,  and  with 
more  knowledge  of  the  country  could  have  done  much  better.  I 
will  however  be  able  to  make  some  valuable  additions  to  paleon- 
tology, and  will  have  all  the  vertebrate  fossils  obtained  by  the 
state  survey,  to  determine.  The  majority  of  mammalia  are  ce- 
taceans, I  have  at  least  15  species  of  these." 

Between  the  years  1868  and  1870,  the  plesiosaurs  of  the  Creta- 
ceous of  Kansas  began  to  occupy  his  attention,  and  in  1871  he 
visited  these  chalk  beds  and  began  his  own  explorations  there. 
His  work  soon  extended  further  westward.  In  1872  for  a  time  he 
was  in  Wyoming,  and  in  1873  he  was  in  Colorado. 

From  Fort  Bridger,  Wyoming,  under  date  of  October  12,  1872, 
he  writes: 

"  I  found  in  my  sixty-five  days'  exploration  the  remains  of  species 
of  animals  according  to  the  following  figures:  species,  quadru- 
peds, 32;  birds,  2;  crocodiles,  6;  lizards,  4;  snakes,  i;  turtles,  17; 
total  62;  and  13-14  kinds  of  fishes." 

From  the  foregoing  quotations  some  idea  of  his  great  activity 
may  be  had  and  yet  it  by  no  manner  of  means  represents  all,  for 
his  nights  were  spent  in  preparing  papers  describing  new  species, 
many  of  which  were  illustrated  by  drawings  from  his  own  pen, 
which  were  promptly  sent  to  Philadelphia  for  publication. 

While  not  neglecting  other  interests,  for  a  time,  at  least,  his 
work  in  paleontology  continued  to  be  paramount,  and  led  in  1872 
to  his  appointment  as  vertebrate  paleontologist  to  the  United 
States  Geological  and  Geographical  Survey  of  the  Territories 
under  Dr.  F.  V.  Hayden,  and  during  his  connection  with  this 
survey  he  explored  and  collected  in  every  state  and  territory  west 
of  the  Missouri. 


322          LEADING  AMERICAN  MEN  OF  SCIENCE 

It  would  be  difficult,  indeed,  to  follow  his  career  in  detail  as  he 
journeyed  through  the  west,  but  it  resulted  in  the  discovery  of 
many  new  types  of  fishes,  mosasaurs,  chelonians,  and  other  rep- 
tiles which  were  described  in  short  preliminary  papers  and  then 
more  fully  in  his  larger  Vertebrata  of  the  Cretaceous  Formations  of 
the  West  (1875),  which  forms  the  second  volume  of  the  quarto 
series  of  the  reports  issued  under  the  auspices  of  the  Hayden 
Survey. 

Even  larger  than  this  is  his  famous  "Book  i "  often  facetiously 
called  "Cope's  Bible"  which,  however,  properly  bears  the  title 
The  Vertebrata  of  the  Tertiary  Formations  of  the  West  and  is  the 
third  volume  of  the  quarto  series  of  the  Hayden  reports.  It  con- 
tains over  a  thousand  pages  and  more  than  one  hundred  plates, 
and  was  published  in  Washington  in  1883.  According  to  Cope 
himself  it  included  descriptions  of  "the  vertebrata  of  the  Eocene 
and  of  the  Lower  Miocene,  less  the  Ungulata."  He  says:  "There 
are  described  three  hundred  and  forty-nine  species,  of  which  I  have 
been  the  discoverer  of  all  except  thirty-two.  They  are  referred  to 
one  hundred  and  twenty-five  genera."  In  further  detail  he  says: 

"The  most  important  results  which  have  accrued  to  paleon- 
tology through  the  researches  here  set  forth,  are  the  following: 
i.  The  discovery  of  the  Laramie  genus  Champsosaurus  in  Ter- 
tiary beds.  2.  The  discovery  of  Plagiaulacidae  in  Tertiary  beds. 
3.  The  discovery  of  the  characters  of  five  families  and  many 
genera  and  species  of  the  Creodonta.  4.  The  discovery  of  the 
characters  of  the  Periptychidcz  and  its  included  genera.  5.  Of 
the  Meniscotheriidce.  6.  Of  the  Phenacodontidcz  and  its  genera. 
7.  The  discovery  of  the  characters  of  the  suborder  of  Condy- 
larthra  and  of  the  phylognetic  results  of  the  same.  8.  The  dis- 
covery of  the  characters  of  the  Pantolambididce;  and  9.  Of  the 
suborder  Taligrada  and  its  implications  in  phylogeny.  10.  The 
discovery  of  the  Anaptomorphida  of  the  Prosimiae.  u.  The 
reconstruction  of  Hyracotherium;  and  12.  Of  Hyrachyus. 
13.  The  discovery  of  numerous  Marsupialia  in  the  Lower  Mio- 
cene. 14.  The  discovery  of  the  phylogenetic  series  of  the  Canidae; 
and  15.  The  same  of  the  ancestors  of  the  Felidae." 

In  his  letter  of  transmittal  Hayden  well  describes  this  volume 
"as  one  of  the  most  important  contributions  to  the  rich  field  of 


EDWARD  DRINKER  COPE  323 

vertebrate  paleontology  of  the  Western  Territories  ever  made  in 
this  country."  As  originally  contemplated  his  work  was  intended 
to  consist  of  four  parts,  namely:  i.  Puerco,  Wasatch,  and  Bridger 
faunae  (Eocene);  2.  White  River  and  John  Day  faunae  (Lower 
and  Middle  Miocene);  3.  Ticholeptus  and  Loup  Fork  faunae 
(Upper  Miocene) ;  and  4.  Pliocene.  Book  i  covered  Part  i  and 
Part  2,  including  the  marsupials,  bats,  insectivores,  rodents,  and 
carnivora  of  the  Miocene  only.  The  remaining  parts  were  never 
published. 
In  March,  1874,  he  wrote  to  his  father: 

"I  recently  went  over  the  reptiles  and  fishes  of  Wheeler's  sur- 
vey with  interesting  results.  I  found  one  new  group  of  fishes  per- 
taining exclusively  to  the  waters  of  the  Western  Colorado — the 
only  one  peculiar;  all  the  rest  are  usual  forms  of  the  east." 

In  July  of  the  same  year  there  will  be  found  among  his  letters 
one,  also  written  to  his  father,  in  which  he  says: 

"I  have  just  returned  from  Washington,  where  I  have  con- 
cluded a  contract  with  G.  M.  Wheeler,  of  the  topographical  engi- 
neers and  director  of  the  Geological  survey  of  the  territories  west 
of  the  looth  meridian.  By  this  I  engage  to  work  on  the  geology 
and  paleontology  of  the  region  he  surveys  until  the  work  is  con- 
cluded (about  a  year)  at  the  rate  of  $2,500  per  annum,  and  $30 
per  month  additional  for  provisions  when  in  the  field,  and  all  ex- 
penses of  expedition  paid." 

He  at  once  took  the  field  and  spent  the  time  from  July  to  October 
in  New  Mexico.  I  glean  the  following  pertinent  paragraphs  from 
his  letters. 

On  September  15,  from  the  "  Eocene  Lake  Formation  "  he 
writes: 

"We  began  to  find  fossil  bones.  The  first  thing  was  a  turtle, 
and  then  Bathmodon  (Cope)  teeth!  and  then  everything  else  rare 
and  strange  till  by  near  sun  down  I  had  twenty  species  of  verte- 
brates! all  of  the  lowest  Eocene,  lower  than  the  lowest  at  Fort 
Bridger.  The  most  important  find  in  geology  I  ever  made,  and 
the  paleontology  promises  grandly." 


324          LEADING  AMERICAN  MEN  OF  SCIENCE 

Twelve  days  later  on  September  27,  writing  from  Camp  Galli- 
nas  he  says: 

"I  have  over  75  species  of  Vertebrate  fossils,  many  new.  .  .  . 
The  most  remarkable  are  toxodonts  of  four  species  and  two  new 
genera,  which  I  call  Calamodon  and  Ectoganus,  varying  from  the 
size  of  a  sheep  to  that  of  a  cow.  The  order  has  never  been  found 
out  of  South  America  before,  and  is  in  structure  between  rats  and 
hoofed  animals,  especially  elephants." 

While  on  October  n,  from  "Camp  N.  W.  from  Nacimiento, 
New  Mexico,"  he  writes: 

"I  have  now  some  90  species  of  vertebrates  from  this  bed,  six 
of  them  toxodonts.  I  have  also  discovered  the  deposits  of  another 
fresh  water  lake  of  much  greater  age,  say  lower  Cretaceous,  not 
many  miles  from  here,  which  contains  remains  of  saurians, — one 
like  Laelaps;  I  have  a  tooth  and  a  vertebra."  fc 

The  results  of  his  summer's  work  in  New  Mexico  were  published 
in  several  preliminary  bulletins  and  then  finally  collected  to  form 
a  part  of  the  volume  on  Paleontology  which  was  published  in  1877 
as  the  fourth  in  the  quarto  series  of  the  reports  of  the  U.  S.  Geo- 
graphical Surveys  west  of  the  One  Hundredth  Meridian,  under 
Lieutenant  George  M.  Wheeler.  It  bears  the  subtitle  of  The 
Extinct  Vertebrata  Obtained  in  New  Mexico  by  Parties  of  the 
Expedition  of  1874. 

Cope  describes  his  work  as  follows: 

"Of  stratigraphical  results,  I  may  mention  three:  first,  the 
elucidation  of  the  structure  of  the  western  slope  of  the  Rocky 
Mountains  and  the  plateau  to  the  westward  of  them,  in  north 
western  New  Mexico;  secondly,  the  determination  of  the  fresh 
water  character  of  the  Triassic  -beds  in  that  region;  thirdly,  the 
discovery  of  extensive  deposits  of  the  Lower  Eocene,  equivalent 
to  the  Suessonien  of  western  Europe." 

The  paleontological  results  were  more  numerous,  and  Cope 
refers  to  them  in  his  letter  of  transmission  as  follows: 

"They  are  included  in  the  determination  of  the  faunae  of  four 
periods  in  basins  which  had  not  previously  been  explored,  viz., 


EDWARD  DRINKER  COPE  325 

in  the  Trias,  the  Eocene,  the  Loup  Fork  epoch,  and  Post-pliocene 
of  the  Sandia  Mountains.  The  first  vertebrate  fossils  ever  de- 
termined from  the  Trias  of  the  Rocky  Mountains  are  included 
in  the  report.  The  first  discovered  were  obtained  by  Professor 
Newberry  while  attached  to  Captain  Macomb's  expedition  and 
one  now  described  for  the  first  time.  The  determination  of  the 
ages  of  the  respective  horizons  necessarily  follows  the  first  deter- 
mination of  the  fossils." 

He  continues: 

"An  especial  advantage  enjoyed  in  the  preparation  of  this  re- 
port consists  in  the  fact  that  the  author  obtained  the  fossils  him- 
self and  is  thus  familiar  with  their  local  relations.  This  is  a  point 
of  much  importance  since  the  fragmentary  condition  in  which 
the  skeletons  of  extinct  vertebrata  are  usually  found,  furnishes 
opportunities  for  error  or  doubt  which  greatly  curtailed  the  value 
of  the  work.  In  the  present  instance  the  author  has  admitted  no 
correlation  of  fragments  without  the  clearest  evidence,  and  where 
any  uncertainty  exists,  has  stated  it." 

The  number  of  specimens  of  extinct  vertebrata  obtained  during 
the  season  of  1874  was  as  follows:  Triassic,  4;  Cretaceous,  13; 
Eocene,  87;  Upper  Miocene  (Loup  Fork),  30;  and  Post-pliocene, 
2,  making  a  total  of  136  specimens  which  now  form  part  of  the 
collections  contained  in  the  U.  S.  National  Museum. 

His  specimens  increased  to  such  an  extent  that  subsequent  to 
1874  he  was  obliged  to  devote  more  and  more  attention  to  working 
up  the  material  that  he  had  accumulated  and  consequently  less 
time  to  field-work;  although  in  1876  he  led  an  expedition  to  the 
Bad  Lands  of  the  Upper  Cretaceous  and  returned  again  in  1877 
to  further  investigate  the  chalk  deposits  of  Kansas.  On  both  of 
these  trips  he  was  accompanied  by  Charles  H.  Sternberg,  who  has 
recently  pleasantly  described  his  experiences.1 

For  a  time  he  maintained  parties  in  the  field,  paying  their 
expenses  from  his  private  purse.  One  of  these  expeditions  was 
sent  as  far  away  as  South  America  and  returned  with  a  valuable 
lot  of  material;  however,  for  the  most  part  they  were  confined  to 

1  See  Life  of  a  Fossil  Hunter,  by  Charles  H.  Sternberg,  New  York,  1909. 


326          LEADING  AMERICAN  MEN  OF  SCIENCE 

the  western  territories  and  were  under  the  direction  of  well-known 
fossil  hunters  such  as  Jacob  L.  Wortman  and  Charles  H.  Sternberg. 

Early  in  1877  he  gave  up  his  residence  in  Haddonfield  and 
thereafter  his  home  on  Pine  Street  in  Philadelphia  was  used  to 
store  his  ever-increasing  collections;  for  notwithstanding  financial 
difficulties  that  came  to  him  owing  to  unfortunate  investments 
made  from  the  ample  fortune  bequeathed  to  him  by  his  father, 
he  persisted  in  retaining  his  collections,  refusing  even  to  sell  por- 
tions for  which  he  was  offered  liberal  sums,  and  at  the  cost  of 
personal  discomfort,  held  on  to  them  and  made  his  home,  for  much 
of  the  time,  in  the  midst  of  them,  having  sold  his  residential  home 
but  keeping  his  museum.  Gill  says:  "He  filled  a  large  house  from 
cellar  to  topmost  story  with  his  collections  and  resided  in  an  ad- 
joining one." 

Of  this  period,  Sternberg  tells  how  he  had  a  standing  invitation 
to  eat  dinner  every  Sunday  with  the  Professor  and  his  wife  and 
daughter,  a  lovely  child  of  twelve  summers.  He  says: 

"I  shall  never  forget  those  Sunday  dinners.  The  food  was 
plain,  but  daintily  cooked,  and  the  Professor's  conversation  was  a 
feast  in  itself.  He  had  a  wonderful  power  of  putting  professional 
matters  from  his  mind  when  he  left  his  study,  and  coming  out 
ready  to  enter  into  any  kind  of  merrymaking.  He  used  to  sit  with 
sparkling  eyes  telling  story  after  story,  while  we  laughed  at  his 
sallies  until  we  could  laugh  no  more." 

I  may  add  that  his  work  in  connection  with  the  exploration  of 
the  western  territories  resulted  in  the  discovery  of  more  than  one 
thousand  new  species  of  extinct  and  as  many  recent  vertebrata. 
It  has  been  said  that  this  work  described  in  more  than  four  hun- 
dred separate  papers  forms  "a  systematic  record  of  paleontology 
in  the  United  States."  l 

1  Professor  Oliver  P.  Hay  is  authority  for  the  following  statement:  "Ac- 
cording to  my  examinations  of  the  fossil  vertebrates  I  find  that  there  are 
something  more  than  3,200  species  described  from  North  America,  and  of 
these  Cope  has  given  name  to  1,115.  That  is  he  has  named  that  many 
species  which,  with  our  present  knowledge,  must  be  accepted  as  good.  They 
are  distributed  as  follows:  Fishes,  227;  Batrachians,  73;  Reptiles,  320;  Birds, 
8;  Mammals,  487;  Total,  1,115." 


EDWARD  DRINKER  COPE  327 

According  to  Osborn  "as  early  as  1868  it  may  be  said  that  he 
had  laid  the  foundations  for  five  great  lines  of  research,  which  he 
pursued  concurrently  to  the  end  of  his  life."  Four  of  these  per- 
taining to  natural  history,  are  fishes,  amphibians,  reptiles,  and 
mammals. 

Very  briefly  I  shall  present  opinions  concerning  his  contributions 
in  these  branches  of  zoology. 

Of  his  knowledge  of  fishes,  Osborn,  his  ever-faithful  friend,  says: 
"Cope's  work  in  ichthyology  would  alone  have  given  him  high 
rank  among  zoologists."  According  to  Gill,  than  whom  no  more 
competent  authority  is  possible,  "as  early  as  1864,  Cope  became 
interested  in  the  fresh  water  fishes  of  the  United  States  and  from 
then  on  published  descriptions  and  enumerations  of  many  species." 
Some  of  the  most  interesting  genera  of  North  America  were  origi- 
nally made  known  by  him.  He  was  the  first  to  describe  the  rich- 
ness of  the  cyprinoid  and  especially  the  catastomoid  fauna  of 
North  Carolina.  But  his  greatest  work  was  on  classification. 
Almost  from  the  first  he  set  aside  the  superficial  characters  which 
had  been  employed  in  the  arrangement  of  fishes,  sympathizing 
keenly  with  the  morphological  study  which  his  colleague,  Theo- 
dore Gill,  was  then  actively  developing.  While  in  Vienna,  in  1863, 
he  purchased  a  large  collection  of  fish-skeletons  from  all  parts  of 
the  world  which  was  most  useful  to  him  in  his  comparative  study 
of  the  various  forms.  In  1870,  he  published  a  paper  in  which  he 
maintained  that  the  primary  divisions  of  the  Telostomi  are  indi- 
cated by  their  fin  structure.  He  established  the  fundamental 
division  of  the  living  fishes  into  five  groups,  just  as  they  stand  at 
the  present  day,  upon  cranial  and  fin  structure.  In  1884  he  pro- 
posed an  Elasmobranch  subclass,  Ichthyotomi,  based  on  the 
Permian  Diplodus,  which  is  firmly  established,  and  in  1889  he 
proposed  the  suborder  Ostracodermi  which  is  also  now  accepted. 
His  views  with  but  slight  modifications  have  received  the  ap- 
proval of  A.  Smith  Woodward  of  the  British  Museum  who  is 
accepted  as  the  best  informed  living  student  of  extinct  forms  of 
fishes.  Cooe  continued  his  studies  on  fishes  until  the  close  of 
his  life  and  his  final  opinions  and  additions  to  the  taxonomy  and 


328          LEADING  AMERICAN  MEN  OF  SCIENCE 

phytogeny  of  fishes  are  contained  in  the  syllabus  of  his  university 
lectures  in  1897. 

Passing  to  the  amphibians  it  may  be  said  that  his  studies  in 
this  branch  of  natural  history  are  included  in  more  than  forty 
papers.  These  began  with  one  on  the  Salamandridse  written  in 
1859.  The  classification  of  the  Anura  received  his  attention  in 
1865  and  1866  when  he  outlined  the  larger  Ecaudate  or  Anurous 
divisions,  namely,  the  Aglossa;  the  Bufomformia;  the  Arcifera; 
and  the  Raniformia.  It  was  also  in  1865  that  he  described  the 
fossil  amphibamus  grandiceps  from  the  Carboniferous  of  Ohio. 
This  was  his  first  extinct  amphibian.  Soon  after,  turning  to  the 
classification  of  the  amphibians,  he  proposed  the  order  of  Stego- 
cephali  to  include  the  labyrinthodonts  and  smiliar  great  monsters 
of  the  past.  This  order  has  been  universally  adopted.  From  the 
Coal  Measures  of  Ohio  and  the  Permian  deposits  of  Texas  he 
obtained  many  new  forms  of  fossil  amphibians  which  he  described 
and  classified,  and  in  1884  he  published  the  "Batrachia  of  the 
Permian  Period  of  North  America,"  in  which  he  summed  up  his 
previous  contributions.  He  must  also  be  credited  with  the  "  Check 
List  of  North  American  Batrachia  and  Reptilia"  (1875)  and  with 
"The  Batrachia  of  North  America"  (1899)  which  he  contributed 
to  the  series  of  Bulletins  published  by  the  U.  S.  National  Museum. 
The  former  includes  a  systematic  list  of  the  higher  groups  and 
also  an  essay  on  geographical  distribution.  The  latter  forms  a 
volume  of  over  500  pages  with  120  text  figures  and  86  full  page 
plates.  In  it  "  107  species  are  recognized  and  these  are  distributed 
under  31  genera."  According  to  Dr.  George  Baur  of  the  Univer- 
sity of  Chicago:  "There  never  has  been  a  naturalist  who  has  pub- 
lished so  many  papers  upon  the  taxonomy,  morphology  and  pale- 
ontology of  the  Amphibia  and  Reptilia  as  Professor  Cope." 

His  studies  of  the  reptiles  developed  largely  in  connection  with 
his  western  explorations,  and  according  to  Osborn  may  be  grouped 
as:  "First,  his  treatment  of  the  reptiles  of  the  Bridger  and  other 
fresh-water  Tertiary  lakes  in  connection  with  the  mammalian 
fauna;  second,  the  continuation  of  his  systematic  description  of 
the  Kansas  Cretaceous  fauna;  third,  the  brief  papers  upon  the 


EDWARD  DRINKER  COPE  329 

herbivorous  Dinosaurs  of  the  Dakota  (1877  and  1878)  and  the 
horned  Dinosaurs  (Monoclonius)  of  the  Laramie  formations; 
fourth,  the  numerous  papers  based  upon  the  Reptilia  of  the  Trias- 
sic,  especially  the  Permian.  The  latter  must  be  considered  the 
most  important  and  unique  in  their  influence  upon  paleontology." 
They  have  also  been  described  as  his  "most  epoch-making  contri- 
butions." Many  of  his  papers  on  the  reptiles  were  contributed  to 
the  Proceedings  of  the  American  Philosophical  Society.  Mention 
was  made  in  the  preceding  paragraph  of  his  two  important  works 
on  batrachia  and  reptilia  in  the  publications  of  the  U.  S.  National 
Museum.  To  them  may  properly  be  added  his  "Catalogue  of 
Batrachia  and  Reptilia  of  Central  America  and  Mexico"  (1887) 
also  published  by  the  National  Museum.  In  it  197  genera  are 
represented.  These  include  705  species  which  are  divided  be- 
tween 135  Batrachia  and  570  Reptilia.  His  last  large  work,  com- 
pleted a  few  months  before  his  death,  was  on  "The  Crocodilians, 
Lizards,  and  Snakes  of  North  America."  It  formed  a  monograph 
of  1095  pages  with  36  plates  and  347  text  figures,  and  was  issued 
as  an  appendix  to  the  Report  of  the  U.  S.  National  Museum  for 
the  year  1898.  According  to  Cope  this  work,  together  "with  my 
book  on  the  Batrachia  published  in  1889,  and  Doctor's  Baur's 
on  the  Testudinata  (in  preparation),1  the  access  to  North  American 
herpetology  becomes  equal  to  that  which  the  science  of  ornithology 
has  long  enjoyed."  This  work  gives  descriptions  in  full  of  all  the 
species  and  their  including  categories.  The  classification  which 
he  had  already  elaborated  in  various  memoirs  is  adopted,  and  as 
in  the  "Batrachia,"  the  genera  and  their  including  groups  of  the 
entire  world  are  diagnosed  in  analytical  tables,  but  full  descriptions 
are  given  only  of  the  North  American  types. 

Professor  Cope's  most  numerous  and  voluminous  papers  were 
devoted  to  mammals  and  more  especially  to  fossil  mammals.  His 
conspicuous  contributions  in  this  domain  are  by  common  consent 
conceded  to  be  those  which  have  led  to  the  development 
and  establishment  of  certain  fundamental  principles  which  he 

1  The  untimely  death  of  Doctor  Baur  unfortunately  prevented  the  publica- 
tion of  his  work. 


330         LEADING  AMERICAN  MEN  OF  SCIENCE 

derived  from  his  experience.  The  proposition  that  "the  ancestors 
of  the  hoofed  animals  possessed  bunodont  or  hillock-like  teeth" 
was  originally  advanced  by  him  and  then  was  verified  by  the  oppor- 
tune discovery  of  Phenacodus.  It  led  to  a  reclassification  by  him 
of  the  Ungulates  by  foot  structure.  To  Cope  is  due  the  chief  credit 
in  establishing  the  principle  "that  the  primitive  feet  of  hoofed 
animals  were  plantigrade,  like  those  of  the  bear  with  serial  unbro- 
ken joints,"  which  according  to  Osborn  constituted  "the  first 
distinct  advance  in  mammalian  classification  since  Owen  demol- 
ished Cuvier's  'pachydermata.'  '  The  same  authority  may  be 
quoted  as  describing  Cope's  conclusions  as  ranking  "with  Huxley's 
best  work  among  similar  problems,  and  they  afford  a  basis  for  the 
phylogenetic  arrangements  of  the  hoofed  orders  which  has  been 
adopted  by  all  American  and  foreign  paleontologists."  From  his 
studies  of  the  collections  from  the  Basal  Eocene  he  derived  his 
"Law  of  Trituberculy,"  that  is,  "that  all  types  of  molar  teeth  in 
mammals  originate  in  modifications  of  the  tritubercular  form." 
This  generalization  is  of  the  utmost  value,  for  upon  it  may  depend 
the  whole  modern  morphology  of  the  teeth  of  the  mammalia  and 
the  establishment  of  a  series  of  homologies  in  the  teeth  of  the  most 
diverse  types,  applying  even  to  the  teeth  of  man.  That  "the  hoofed 
orders  converge  towards  the  clawed  types  of  Creodonta  and  Insec- 
tivora"  is  a  law  which  he  also  laid  down  and  demonstrated  by  a 
fortunate  discovery  in  the  field.  He  defined  the  primitive  suborder 
of  Carnivora,  now  universally  adopted  under  his  name  of  Creo- 
donta; and  he  added  much  to  our  knowledge  of  the  whole  order, 
especially  of  the  true  cats.  The  mechanical  origin  of  the  hard 
parts  of  the  bodies  of  mammals,  especially  the  teeth,  vertebrae, 
and  limbs  received  his  consideration  and  he  published  many  papers 
on  this  subject,  which  culminated  in  his  memoir  on  the  "Origin 
of  the  Hard  Parts  of  the  Mammalia"  (1889). 

Fitting  indeed,  as  a  closing  paragraph  to  these  brief  summaries 
of  his  specialties  are  the  following  words  written  by  his  friend  and 
admirer,  A.  Smith  Woodward  of  the  British  Museum: 

"One  great  feature  of  this  systematic  work,  everywhere  con- 
spicuous, is  the  attempt  to  define  every  term,  whether  specific, 


EDWARD  DRINKER  COPE  331 

generic,  of  family  or  higher  rank,  in  a  concise  diagnosis.  Before 
Cope's  time,  this  method  had  rarely  been  applied  to  extinct  ani- 
mals; even  at  the  present  day  it  does  not  prevail  so  widely  as  it 
ought  to  do.  Cope,  however,  made  all  his  definitions  as  precise 
as  the  variously  imperfect  materials  would  allow;  and  he  naturally 
waxed  wroth  in  his  reviews  of  some  contemporary  literature 
which  contained  new  names  with  nothing  but  an  artist's  drawing 
to  justify  their  introduction  into  scientific  terminology." 

The  consideration  of  Professor  Cope's  philosophical  writings 
naturally  belongs  here.  He  was  never  satisfied  with  the  study  of 
morphological  details  or  simple  taxonomy.  As  Gill  says:  "He 
aspired  to  know  how  animals  came  into  existence;  why  they  varied 
as  they  did,  and  what  laws  determined  their  being.  His  was  an 
eminently  philosophical  mind,  but  at  the  same  time  with  a  decided 
tendency  to  metaphysical  speculation." 

And  so  in  1869,  at  tne  verv  outset  of  his  career  he  published  a 
remarkable  essay  of  80  pages,  On  the  Origin  of  Genera,  in 
which  he  contended  that  while  a  large  proportion  of  specific 
characters  are  adaptive,  few  generic  characters  are  so,  and  the 
latter  evolve  separately  by  the  force  of  "acceleration  or  retarda- 
tion" of  one  of  several  plans  or  types  of  development  preordained 
by  the  Creator.  He  did  not  agree  with  Darwin  that  natural  selec- 
tion was  a  sufficient  factor  for  differentiation  but  returned  to  the 
Lamarckian  principle  of  the  effect  of  the  use  and  disuse  to  explain 
variations;  but  he  went  further  than  Lamarck  in  that  he  denied 
that  animals  are  passive  subjects.  With  Hyatt,  Ryder,  and 
Packard  he  became  one  of  the  pioneers  in  the  Neo-Lamarckian 
school  of  thought. 

In  1874,  in  a  letter  to  his  father,  Cope  wrote  : 

"There  are  three  forms  of  evolution  doctrines:  (i)  That  non- 
vital  force  evolves  life;  (2)  that  internal  consciousness  is  the  source 
of  non-vital  force  and  life;  (3)  that  external  or  supernatural  force, 
applied  from  without,  maintains  development.  My  studies  have 
led  me  to  the  second  position.  The  third  is  Professor  McCosh's; 
the  first  that  of  the  materialists." 

His  progressive  thoughts  on  evolution  and  other  metaphysical 
problems  may  be  found  in  such  papers  as  "On  the  Hypothesis 


332         LEADING  AMERICAN  MEN  OF  SCIENCE 

of  Evolution,"  contributed  to  Lippincott's  Magazine  in  1871; 
"Evolution  and  its  Consequences"  (1872);  "Consciousness  in 
Evolution"  (1875)  and  "The  Origin  of  the  Will"  (1877)  which 
appeared  in  the  Penn  Monthly  in  the  years  named.  Of  similar 
character  were  his  studies  "On  Archaesthetism "  (1882);  "The 
Relations  of  Mind  to  Matter"  (1887);  and  "The  Theology  of 
Evolution  (1887),  originally  published  in  the  American  Natural- 
ists, as  well  as  "What  is  the  Object  of  Life?"  (1887)  which 
appeared  in  The  Forum. 

Many  of  these  are  included  in  the  series  of  twenty-one  essays 
on  evolution  which  he  published  in  1886  with  the  title  of  The 
Origin  of  the  Fittest.  In  this  volume  of  467  pages  he  presents 
"the  doctrine  of  evolution  from  a  more  modern  standpoint  than 
that  of  Darwin  and  which  is  at  the  same  time  more  ancient,  namely 
that  of  Lamarck."  He  shows  essentially  that  organic  structure 
or  species  are  the  result  of  movements  long  continued  and  inherited 
and  that  the  character  of  these  movements  was  originally  deter- 
mined by  consciousness  or  sensibility.  Effort  or  use  exerted  by 
the  living  being  on  its  own  body  is  the  reason,  he  contended,  why 
variations  occur  for  natural  selection  to  play  on. 

The  London  Athen&um  said  of  this  volume: 

"As  many  of  the  opponents  of  evolution  are,  consciously  or 
unconsciously,  swayed  by  the  fear  that  the  principle  threatens  the 
future  of  revealed  religion,  it  is  proper  to  add  that  Professor  Cope's 
method  of  dealing  with  metaphysical  evolution  is  hardly  one  to 
which  any  of  the  various  synonyms  of  'unorthodox7  could  be 
applied." 

Among  his  later  essays  worthy  of  special  mention  are  the  fol- 
lowing: "Evolution  and  Idealism"  (1888);  "The  Relation  of 
Will  to  the  Conservation  of  Energy"  (1888);  "The  Theism  of 
Evolution"  (1888);  "On  Inheritance  in  Evolution"  (1889);  "The 
Evolution  of  Mind"  (1890);  "Phylogeny  of  Man"  (1891);  "The 
Energy  of  Evolution"  (1894);  and  "Psychic  Evolution"  (1897), 
all  of  which  appeared  in  the  American  Naturalist.  His  papers  on 
the  relations  of  individuals  during  this  period  were  for  the  most 
part  contributed  to  the  Monist  and  The  Open  Court,  both  of  which 


EDWARD  DRINKER  COPE  333 

are  published  in  Chicago.  They  include  the  following:  "The 
Marriage  Problem"  (1888),  "Ethical  Evolution"  (1889),  "On 
the  Material  Relation  of  Sex"  (1890),  "Foundations  of  Theism" 
(1893),  "The  Effeminization  of  Man"  (1893),  "The  Present 
Problems  of  Organic  Evolution"  (1895),  and  "Primary  Factors 
of  Organic  Evolution"  (1896).  These  essays  in  time  formed  the 
basis  of  chapters  or  even  constituted  chapters  themselves  in  the 
works  that  he  subsequently  published.  Many  of  those  that  ap- 
peared in  Chicago  were  collected  and  woven  into  the  volume  enti- 
tled The  Primary  Factors  of  Organic  Evolution,  which  was  pub- 
lished in  1896.  This  work  he  describes  as  "an  attempt  to  select 
from  the  mass  of  facts  accumulated  by  biologists,  those  which,  in 
the  author's  opinion,  throw  a  clear  light  on  the  problem  of  organic 
evolution,  and  especially  that  of  the  animal  kingdom." 
The  evidence  presented  is  chiefly  paleontological.  He  says: 

"In  the  search  for  the  factors  of  evolution,  we  must  have  first 
a  knowledge  of  the  course  of  evolution.  This  can  only  be  obtained 
in  a  final  and  positive  form  by  investigation  of  the  succession  of 
life.  The  record  of  this  succession  is  contained  in  the  sedimentary 
deposits  of  the  earth's  crust,  and  is  necessarily  imperfect.  Advance 
in  knowledge  in  this  direction  has,  however,  been  very  great  of 
recent  years,  so  that  some  parts  of  the  genealogical  tree  are  toler- 
ably or  quite  complete.  We  hope  reasonably  for  continued  prog- 
ress in  this  direction,  and  if  the  future  is  to  be  judged  of  by  the 
past,  the  number  of  gaps  in  our  knowledge  will  be  greatly  lessened. 
In  the  absence  of  the  paleontological  record,  we  necessarily  rely 
on  the  embryologic,  which  contains  a  recapitulation  of  it.  The 
imperfections  of  the  embryonic  records  are,  however,  great,  and 
this  record  differs  from  the  paleontologic  in  that  no  future  dis- 
covery in  embryology  can  correct  its  irregularities.  On  the  con- 
trary every  paleontologic  discovery  is  an  addition  to  positive 
genealogy." 

Mention  is  appropriate  at  this  place  of  his  contribution  of  a 
paper  on  "Evolution  in  Science  and  Art"  to  the  Evolution  Series 
of  the  Brooklyn  Ethical  Association  in  1891.  He  also  prepared 
one  of  the  lectures  in  the  series  published  over  the  title  of  Half 
Hours  with  Modern  Scientists,  and  he  was  the  author  of  the  article 
on  "Comparative  Anatomy"  contained  in  the  Universal  Cyclopedia, 


334          LEADING  AMERICAN  MEN  OF  SCIENCE 

His  last  book,  published  in  1897,  was  on  The  Primary  Factors  of 
Organic  Evolution.  In  it  with  his  accustomed  skill  he  gives  the 
latest  evidence  for  inheritance  of  acquired  characters. 

Gill  says  of  this  work: 

"  He  evoked  '  evidence  from  embryology,'  '  evidence  from  paleon- 
tology,' 'evidence  from  breeding';  he  considered  the  'characters 
due  to  nutrition,'  'characters  due  to  exercise  of  function,'  'char- 
acters due  to  disease,'  'characters  due  to  mutilation  and  injuries,' 
and  'characters  due  to  regional  influence';  he  enquired  into  the 
conditions  of  inheritance,'  and  he  fought  against  the  'objections 
to  the  doctrine  of  inheritance  of  acquired  characters.'  " 

This  volume  is  of  interest  also  as  containing  his  views  on  many 
sociological  and  theological  problems. 

A.  Smith  Woodward  of  the  British  Museum  in  a  most  admirable 
sketch  of  Cope  that  appeared  in  Natural  Science  for  June,  1897, 
sums  up  his  view  on  philosophy  so  satisfactorily  that  even  if  the 
statements  are  of  the  nature  of  repetition,  I  believe  them  worthy 
of  presentation. 

"Cope  believed  that  all  organisms,  impelled  by  some  inherent 
growth-force,  which  he  termed  'Bathmism,'  varied  in  certain 
definite  directions,  and  that  all  modifications  ultimately  depended 
on  the  mechanical  conditions  of  the  environment.  Paleontology, 
according  to  him  proved  beyond  all  doubt  that  characters  thus 
acquired  were  inherited.  Still  further,  he  promulgated  the  doc- 
trine, that  this  development  of  new  characters  takes  place  by  an 
acceleration  or  retardation  in  the  growth  of  the  parts  changed; 
that,  in  fact,  the  adult  of  an  ancestral  organism'  is  the  exact  parallel 
of  an  immature  stage  in  its  descendant,  which  only  advances  or 
becomes  degraded  in  certain  characters  during  the  latest  phase  of 
its  growth.  He  was  also  the  first  to  point  out,  as  the  result  of 
these  premises,  that  the  genera  of  systematists,  as  commonly  under- 
stood, are  often  polyphyletic.  According  to  him,  it  is  the  species 
that  are  permanent,  while  genera  are  but  our  expression  of  various 
grades  of  organisation  through  which  many  species  pass.  The 
environment  moulds  species  into  genera,  and  genera  into  families ; 
and  a  genus  or  a  family  by  no  means  contains  forms  that  are  of 
necessity  descended  from  a  common  ancestor. 

"Finally,  and  not  unnaturally,  Cope  wandered  into  the  domain 


EDWARD  DRINKER  COPE  335 

of  mental  phenomena,  and  applied  his  principles  to  these.  He 
believed  that  consciousness  preceded  the  form  in  which  we  are 
accustomed  to  witness  its  manifestation,  namely  organic  tissue. 
His  latest  definition  of  life  was:  'Energy  directed  by  sensibility, 
or  by  a  mechanism  which  has  originated  under  the  direction  of 
sensibility.'" 

In  the  year  1878,  Cope  purchased  the  rights  of  the  owners  of 
the  American  Naturalist,  a  scientific  periodical  founded  in  1866 
by  Messrs.  Hyatt,  Morse,  Packard,  and  Putnam,  then  in  the 
splendid  strength  of  their  early  manhood  and  fresh  from  the  labora- 
tories of  Cambridge  where  they  had  been  students  under  the  elder 
Agassiz.  This  journal  was  published  in  Salem,  Massachusetts, 
but  Cope  transferred  its  place  of  publication  at  once  to  Philadel- 
phia where  it  was  regularly  issued  by  him  at  first  in  association 
with  Professor  Packard,  and  then  alone,  aided,  however,  by  a  staff 
of  eminent  specialists.  Subsequent  to  1887,  he  was  its  editor-in- 
chief  and  sole  proprietor.  This  medium  afforded  him  an  outlet 
for  his  continuous  stream  of  shorter  articles  and  for  the  free  expres- 
sion of  his  very  independent  opinions  upon  current  scientific  move- 
ments and  topics.  His  last  words  appeared  in  the  numbers  issued 
after  his  death  and  the  leading  article  on  those  remarkable  mam- 
mals of  South  America,  known  as  Toxodontia,  in  the  June  number 
for  1897,  was  from  his  pen.  Twenty  octavo  volumes  (12-31) 
form  the  record  of  his  industry  in  this  direction. 

With  his  retirement  from  Haverford  College  in  1867  Cope's 
professorial  work  was  entirely  discontinued  for  more  than  twenty 
years,  although  he  gave  lectures  in  his  own  home  to  special  stu- 
dents and  from  time  to  time  he  delivered  public  lectures,  showing 
the  wonders  of  his  western  exploration  to  enthusiastic  audiences. 

In  1873  he  wrote: 

"  Some  one  has  just  endowed  a  chair  of  natural  history  at  Prince- 
ton College  to  be  called  the  Henry  chair,  and  Professor  H.  recom- 
mended me  to  Professor  McCosh  to  fill  it.  .The  latter  objected 
to  my  evolution  sentiments,  for  those  views  are  much  condemned 
at  Princeton.  I  have  not  much  intention  of  fixing  myself  there, 
as  the  hours  and  work  generally  will  probably  require  too  much 
time,  but  I  may  find  the  University  of  Pennsylvania  better, 


336         LEADING  AMERICAN  MEN  OF  SCIENCE 

especially  as  it  is  nearer  home.     One  or  the  other  I  will  probably 
undertake." 

At  the  close  of  the  Centennial  Exhibition  in  Philadelphia  in 
October,  1876,  the  success  that  had  crowned  the  splendid  efforts 
of  the  public-spirited  citizens  of  that  city  led  to  further  efforts  on 
their  part  to  organize  a  memorial  that  should  be  a  permanent 
exhibition,  a  special  feature  of  which  was  to  be  the  Educational 
Department.  Cope  was  made  chief  of  the  division  of  organic 
material  and  did  much  in  the  preliminary  work  of  organization 
of  what  is  now  the  Pennsylvania  Museum  in  Fairmount  Park. 

The  loss  of  the  greater  part  of  his  private  fortune  led  Cope  to 
consider  the  desirability  of  increasing  his  income,  by  some  ap- 
pointment worthy  of  his  ability.  It  was  doubtless  on  that  account 
that  in  a  letter  written  to  Dr.  Persifor  Frazer  he  says: 

"Some  of  my  friends  are  exerting  themselves  to  secure  for  me 
the  place  to  be  shortly  vacated  by  Langley  in  the  Smithsonian.  He 
will  in  all  probability  become  secretary  of  the  Smithsonian  Institu- 
tion and  the  place  of  Assistant  Secretary  will  be  vacant.  G. 
Brown  Goode  will  become  director  of  the  National  Museum  and 
Chief  of  the  U.  S.  Fish  Commission,  but  some  one  will  be  necessary 
to  fill  the  other  vacancy.  The  person  must  also  be  a  naturalist, 
since  Langley  the  secretary,  is  a  physicist." 

In  1889,  he  was  called  to  the  chair  of  geology  and  mineralogy 
in  the  University  of  Pennsylvania,  and  in  the  actual  charge  of 
this  professorship  he  continued  until  his  death  although  in 
1895,  the  exact  title  of  the  chair  was  changed  to  that  of  "zoology 
and  comparative  anatomy." 

Gill  says  of  him  in  that  capacity: 

"Such  a  man  naturally  awakened  the  interest  of  apt  pupils, 
and  he  was  a  facile  and  entertaining  lecturer.  From  the  stores 
of  a  rich  memory  he  could  improvise  a  discourse  on  almost  any 
topic  within  the  range  of  his  varied  studies.  His  views  were  so 
much  in  advance  of  those  in  any  text-book  that  for  his  own  con- 
venience, no  less  than  for  the  benefit  of  his  pupils,  he  felt  compelled 
to  prepare  a  'syllabus  of  lectures  on  geology  and  paleontology/ 
but  only  'Part  III,  Paleontology  of  the  Vertebrata'  was  published. 


EDWARD  DRINKER  COPE  337 

It  appeared  in  1891  and  is  still  a  valuable  epitome  of  the  classifica- 
tion of  the  vertebrates,  recent  as  well  as  fossil,  giving  in  dichoto- 
mous  tables  the  essential  characters  of  all  the  groups  above  families 
and  also  the  names  of  all  the  families." 

The  honors  that  came  to  him  were  many  and  well  earned. 
Haverford  College  gave  him  the  degree  of  Master  of  Arts  in  1870, 
and  the  University  of  Heidelberg  on  the  occasion  of  the  celebra- 
tion of  the  five  hundredth  anniversary  of  its  foundation  conferred 
on  him  the  degree  of  Doctor  of  Philosophy.  The  Bigsby  gold 
medal  of  the  Geological  Society  of  London  was  bestowed  on  him 
in  1879,  and  in  1891  the  Academy  of  Natural  Sciences  of  Philadel- 
phia gave  him  its  Hayden  Memorial  medal.  He  became  a  member 
of  the  Academy  of  Natural  Sciences  in  Philadelphia  in  1861,  and 
was  a  curator  of  that  Academy  in  1865-73,  corresponding  secretary 
in  1868-76,  and  a  member  of  the  Council  in  1879-80.  In  1866 
he  was  chosen  to  membership  in  the  American  Philosophical 
Society,  and  in  1872  was  elected  to  the  National  Academy  of 
Sciences.  His  connection  with  the  American  Association  for  the 
Advancement  of  Science  began  with  his  election  in  1868,  and  in 
1875  he  was  advanced  to  the  grade  of  fellow.  The  Section  on 
Biology  made  him  its  presiding  officer  in  1884,  and  in  the  following 
year  he  delivered  a  retiring  address  on  "  Catagenesis."  His  name 
had  been  frequently  urged  upon  the  Association  for  its  highest 
honor,  but  it  was  not  until  the  Springfield  meeting  in  1895  that 
this  well-merited  appreciation  came  to  him.  In  1864  he 
was  elected  a  corresponding  member  of  the  Zoological  Society  of 
London,  and  in  1881  he  was  chosen  a  foreign  correspondent  of 
the  Geological  Society  of  London.  While  attending  the  Inter- 
national Geological  Congress  held  in  1878  in  Paris,  he  was  nomi- 
nated for  membership  in  the  Geological  Society  of  France,  to  which 
he  refers  in  a  letter  to  his  wife  as  "quite  an  honor."  The  Royal 
academies  of  Bavaria  and  Denmark,  as  well  as  other  learned 
societies  in  Europe,  testified  to  their  appreciation  of  his  attain- 
ments by  enrolling  his  name  among  their  foreign  correspondents. 

A  personal  description  of  the  man  taken  from  a  sketch  by  Miss 
Helen  Dean  King  follows.  Doctor  King  was  his  assistant  for  a 


338          LEADING  AMERICAN  MEN  OF  SCIENCE 

time  and  knew  Professor  Cope  well.    Her  appreciation  does  full 
justice  to  the  man: 

"Professor  Cope  was  a  man  of  quick  decision,  boundless  energy, 
and  great  independence  in  thought  and  expression.  He  had  keen 
and  accurate  powers  of  observation  and  a  marvelous  memory 
embracing  the  most  minute  details.  Strong  in  his  convictions,  he 
was  fearless  in  his  criticism  of  men  and  institutions  when  he  was 
convinced  that  he  was  upholding  the  right;  yet  he  was  ever  ready 
to  admit  a  mistake  or  correct  an  error  when  it  had  been  proven 
that  he  was  in  the  wrong.  He  possessed  tireless  perseverance — 
an  attribute  always  essential  to  good  scientific  work — and  when 
absorbed  in  his  investigations  he  was  completely  forgetful  of  his 
own  personal  comfort,  going  for  long  periods  without  food  or  rest." 

Of  more  than  passing  interest  is  the  following  letter  written  by 
him  on  February  3,  1873.  It  describes  the  complimentary  dinner 
given  in  New  York  city  to  Prof.  John  Tyndall,  on  the  eve  of  his 
departure  for  England,  after  a  successful  lecture  tour  in  the  princi- 
pal cities  of  the  United  States: 

"It  was  a  good  assembly  of  five  hundred,  mostly  naturalists,  and 
though  the  dinner  was  good,  there  was  more  reason  and  soul  and 
no  conviviality  in  the  usual  sense;  Evarts,  the  lawyer  presided, 
and  Tyndall,  Draper,  Barnard,  etc.,  spoke  for  science,  and  Beecher 
and  Doctor  Bellows  for  theology.  The  whole  subject  was  well- 
handled  and  I  was  particularly  pleased  with  Beecher,  whose 
acquaintance  I  afterwards  made.  Bellows  was  not  afraid  of  his 
audience  and  told  them  plain  gospel.  He  told  Tyndall  that  on 
his  departure  he  should  have  as  many  of  his  prayers  as  he  would 
believe  in,  and  alluded  generally  to  prayer  in  a  very  effective  and 
graceful  manner.  Tyndall  in  his  remarks  spoke  largely  of  a  sense 
of  duty,  which  he  considered  important." 

Of  his  own  beliefs,  I  venture  to  quote  an  extract  from  a  letter 
written  by  him  in  1886: 

"I  learned  several  things  in  the  time  I  have  lived.  Nothing 
affords  so  much  satisfaction  to  the  mind  as  the  consciousness  of 
having  done  right,  not  but  that  the  best  people  must  have  regrets 
for  having  also  done  wrong  on  some  occasions.  Then  we  can  take 
comfort  in  the  knowledge  that  God  knows  our  incapacities  and  our 
defects,  and  pities  and  helps  us;  the  latter  especially  if  we  try  to 
help  ourselves.  But  there  are  many  triflers  in  the  world,  people 


EDWARD  DRINKER  COPE  339 

who  avoid  doing  anything  of  any  value  or  importance.     It  is  very 
desirable  not  to  be  compelled  to  live  with  such  people.     Any  one  |\ 
who  feels  the  seriousness  of  life  and  the  certainty  of  its  termination,  j 
will  not  waste  it." 

The  last  letter  that  he  ever  wrote  contains  so  much  that  is  perti- 
nent to  this  subject  that  I  cannot  forbear  from  including  a  large 
portion  of  it.  He  wrote,  using  the  familiar  style  of  the  Quakers, — 
the  style  of  his  ancestors  and  of  the  faith  in  which  he  was  born: 

"Dear  Aunt  Jane:  I  understand  that  to-morrow  is  thy  birthday 
and  I  wish  to  send  my  greetings. 

"I  do  not  expect  to  leave  the  world  yet  awhile,  but  I  shall  do  so 
when  the  time  comes  with  the  full  belief  that  it  will  be  a  change 
greatly  for  the  better. 

"The  relation  of  the  Supreme  to  men  is  that  of  father  to  children, 
and  if  we  keep  the  relation  true,  He  (?)  will  not  fail.  To  be  sick 
is  good  for  us  sometimes.  It  corrects  our  perspective  of  human 
life,  and  sets  things  in  a  proportion  which  we  must  sometimes  see. 
In  active  life  we  have  our  special  pre-occupation  of  mind,  and  see 
chiefly  those  things. 

"So  we  do  our  work;  and  must  do  it;  but  to  take  a  pause  some- 
time is  good.  This  applies  to  me,  for  I  have  many  enterprises 
going  on  that  need  close  attention,  and  other  things  cannot  receive 
much  attention. 

"May  physical  comfort  attend  thy  coming  years;  mental  peace 
thee  knows  how  to  have,  and  may  it  remain." 

In  February  of  1897,  Cope's  health  became  seriously  affected 
by  a  nephritic  disorder  which  it  is  said  "might  possibly  have  been 
remedied  by  a  surgical  operation,"  but  this  he  would  not  submit 
to.  He  soon  grew  worse  and,  in  March,  he  wrote  to  his  wife, 
saying: 

"  I  went  to  my  lecture  Tuesday  and  was  the  worse  for  it.  I  am 
well  cared  for  by  the  Doctor  and  Miss  Brown;  and  between  my 
spells  of  pain,  I  can  do  some  work  that  enables  me  to  pass  the 
time  as  pleasantly  as  may  be  under  the  circumstances.  My  pur- 
suits are  fortunately  such  that  they  are  not  suspended  by  imprison- 
ment in  the  house.  This  is  fortunate  for  me,  as  I  find  inaction 
very  unpleasant,  until  I  am  actually  disabled  and  then  it  comes 
natural. 


340         LEADING  AMERICAN  MEN  OF  SCIENCE 

"  Apparently  healthier  men  than  I  die  about  us.  ...  My 
trouble  will  probably  finish  me  in  the  course  of  time,  if  it  goes  on, 
but  it  can  be  eradicated  by  a  surgical  operation,  and  that  I  will 
probably  have  to  undergo  sooner  or  later.  gives  me  a  remark- 
able case  of  a  permanent  cure  of  a  worse  case  than  mine  by  some 
surgery." 

And  then  a  week  later  he  again  wrote  to  his  wife  pathetically: 
"The  sky  looks  beautiful  out  of  the  window,  and  I  dare  say  that  in 
a  few  days  the  country  will  be  charming.  I  am  anxious  to  get  out, 
but  cannot  yet  awhile." 

Steadily  he  grew  worse  and  worse,  and  then  on  March  31,  he 
wrote  with  cheerful  optimism  in  that  last  letter  sent  to  his  aunt: 

"  I  have  been  confined  to  my  room,  barring  a  few  walks  out,  for 
five  weeks  to-day;  some  of  the  days  confined  to  bed. 

"I  have  suffered  great  pain  and  am  now  recovering  slowly  from 
the  depression  caused  by  powerful  drugs  taken  for  relief.  My 
dangerous  symptoms  have  passed  away,  but  the  morphia-bella- 
donna combination  makes  the  strongest  constitution  stagger.  The 
mental  depression  is  dreadful  so  that  nothing  in  life  is  in  any  degree 
enjoyable,  except  an  occasional  draught  of  ice  water.  So  I  pity 
everybody  I  hear  of  that  is  sick,  and  am  glad  to  see  so  many  people 
well.  To  be  well  seems  to  me  now  to  be  something  extraordi- 
narily fortunate." 

He  continued  on  until  April  12,  and  then  in  the  room  which  he 
had  so  long  used  as  a  study,  surrounded  by  the  objects  of  his  life- 
long attentions,  the  end  came  and  he  passed  into  the  future. 

Once  he  wrote: 

"I  dare  not  deny  a  future  life,  and  as  we  all  probably  wish  it, 
in  case  it  should  be  happy,  we  may  seek  for  phenomena  which 
indicate  the  existence  of  such  a  state  of  happiness  in  the  human 
mind  in  this  world.  ...  If  we  believe  in  a  development  into  a 
future  life,  we  must  believe  that  as  many  have  gone  before  us, 
that  future  state  must  be  well  populated.  If  this  be  true  I  see  no 
difficulty  in  supporting  that  communication,  and  hence  prayer,  is 
a  reasonable  thing." 

The  peace  that  passeth  all  understanding  and  the  knowledge  of 
the  future  are  now  his. 


WILLARD  GIBBS 

PHYSICIST 

1839-1903 
BY  EDWIN  E.  SLOSSON 

BACON  says  there  are  two  kinds  of  men  of  science,  the  ants  and 
the  spiders.  The  ants  are  the  men  of  experiment  who  collect  facts 
and  use  them.  The  spiders  are  the  men  of  theory  who  spin  cob- 
webs from  their  own  minds.  He  condemns  both  extremes,  and, 
thanks  in  part  to  his  exposition  of  the  need  of  combining  theory 
and  practice,  the  two  species  are  becoming  less  distinct.  The 
practical  man  is  more  and  more  recognizing  the  importance  of 
theory,  and  the  theorist  is  paying  better  heed  to  experimentation. 
Nevertheless,  the  two  mental  types  persist,  and  it  is  usually 
possible  to  tell  to  which  any  scientist,  however  great,  inclines. 
The  practical  man  uses  a  general  law  as  a  vaulting-pole  to  assist 
him  in  jumping  from  one  fact  to  another.  The  theoretical  man 
uses  facts  as  stepping-stones  to  reach  a  general  law.  The  practi- 
cal man  receives  his  inspiration  from  mixing  with  men  and  per- 
ceiving their  needs.  He  produces  immediate  results  and  he  gets 
an  immediate  reward  in  popularity,  praise  and  wealth.  The 
nature  of  his  work  is  apparent  to  everybody,  and  his  achieve- 
ments are  appreciated,  indeed  often  overestimated,  by  his  con- 
temporaries. The  theorist,  on  the  contrary,  is  heard  of  more 
often  after  his  death  than  during  his  life,  for  he  is  apt  to  be 
something  of  a  recluse,  following  his  own  thread  of  thought 
without  allowing  his  attention  to  be  distracted  by  the  shouts  of 
the  crowd  who  cannot  understand  his  work  or  his  temperament, 
and  are  always  calling  him  in  directions  that  to  them  seem 
more  profitable. 

34i 


342          LEADING  AMERICAN  MEN  OF  SCIENCE 

Of  American  scientists  Count  Rumford  and  Prof.  Willard 
Gibbs,  are  the  best  examples  of  these  two  tendencies,  and  since 
each  was  able  to  make  his  life  the  expression  of  his  personality  in 
a  very  unusual  degree,  they  form  as  remarkable  a  contrast  in  life 
as  in  temperament.  The  former  was  a  man  of  the  court,  the  latter 
of  the  college.  The  one  was  a  rover,  an  adventurer,  whose  changes 
of  fortune  would  form  a  theme  for  a  romance;  the  other  lived  a 
cloistered  life,  absolutely  devoid  of  dramatic  incident,  the  intellec- 
tual life  in  its  purest  form.  Rumford  took  great  delight  in  the 
honors,  decorations  and  titles  heaped  upon  him  as  he  journeyed 
from  country  to  country,  and  the  applause  of  street  crowds  was 
sweet  to  his  ears;  the  influence  of  women  was  a  potent  factor  in  his 
life.  Gibbs  was  shy  and  modest,  a  celibate,  and  was  little  known 
personally  except  to  some  of  his  colleagues  of  the  faculty.  Anyone 
of  ordinary  culture  can  read  understandingly  all  of  Rumford's 
papers.  Gibbs'  work  is  a  sealed  book  to  all  but  a  few  of  mathe- 
matical mind  and  training. 

Rumford's  work  had  always  a  practical  purpose,  even  when  he 
was  evolving  a  general  law,  and  he  hastened  personally  to  apply 
the  scientific  principles  he  discovered  to  the  conveniences  of  daily 
life.  Gibbs  paid  no  attention  to  the  invention  of  useful  articles, 
or  to  the  promotion  of  manufactures.  Rumford  used  general  prin- 
ciples as  guides  to  his  further  experimentation;  Gibbs  left  entirely 
to  others  the  experimental  verification  of  the  laws  he  logically 
deduced.  Rumford  carried  on  researches  of  the  most  varied 
character;  Gibbs  confined  his ' life-work  to  a  few  closely  allied 
studies.  Rumford's  discoveries  were  the  result  of  his  alert  observa- 
tion and  shrewd  wit;  Gibbs  made  his  deductions  by  slow  and  sure 
process  of  rigid  mathematical  analysis. 

It  would  be  useless  to  discuss  which  type  of  scientist  is  the  more 
useful,  and  it  would  be  unjust  as  well  as  futile  to  blame  the  one 
for  not  being  the  other.  We  do  not  find  fault  with  a  great  general 
because  he  is  not  also  a  great  poet,  and  there  is  need  for  as  wide  a 
diversity  of  gifts  in  the  advancement  of  science.  The  theorist  and 
the  utilitarian  often  fail  to  understand  and  to  appreciate  one 
another;  such  narrowness  cannot  be  ascribed  to  the  two  men  here 


WILLARD  GIBBS  343 

contrasted,  for  in  their  case  it  was  a  concentration  of  personal 
powers,  not  a  narrowness  of  mind  that  made  their  work  so 
diverse.  Gibbs  did  not  despise  applied  science,  nor  did  Rum- 
ford  neglect  theory.  Each  did  most  what  he  could  do  best,  the 
work  he  was  fitted  by  nature  to  do,  and  what,  in  the  state  of  science 
at  the  time,  was  most  needed.  In  the  days  of  Rumford,  when 
physical  science  was  in  its  infancy,  one  who  devoted  himself  to  its 
prosecution  had  to  justify  such  research  by  constantly  showing 
its  value  to  mankind.  Experiments  had  to  be  crude  because 
facilities  were  lacking.  But  in  the  time  of  Gibbs,  a  hundred  years 
later,  the  technique  of  experimentation  had  reached  great  perfec- 
tion, the  usefulness  of  scientific  research  had  been  demonstrated, 
and  there  were  plenty  of  workers  in  well-equipped  laboratories, 
but  deep  abstract  thinkers  were  rare.  Ants  were  numerous  and 
busy,  but  spiders  were  hard  to  find. 

Chemistry  is  in  a  peculiar  state.  It  started  as  a  practical 
science  and  its  advance  has  been  so  rapid  that  the  theoretical  has 
never  caught  up  with  it.  By  a  century  of  very  successful  experi- 
mental work  there  have  been  accumulated  a  larger  number  of 
verified  facts  than  was  ever  before  at  the  disposal  of  a  science, 
but  there  is  an  almost  complete  lack  of  guiding  theories  and  corre- 
lating hypotheses.  Hundreds  of  thousands  of  chemical  com- 
pounds have  been  made  and  studied;  their  melting-points,  boiling- 
points  and  solubilities  have  been  determined;  their  properties  and 
reactions  are  known ;  but  why  they  look  and  behave  as  they  do  no 
one  can  tell.  The  chemist  who  mixes  together  two  compounds 
can  guess  only  by  means  of  vague  and  uncertain  analogies  how 
they  will  act.  Whether  a  given  salt  will  be  more  or  less  soluble 
in  hot  water  than  in  cold,  whether  two  solutions  of  salts  when 
mixed  will  precipitate  a  solid,  evolve  a  gas  or  remain  unchanged 
he  has  no  way  of  determining  for  sure  except  to  try  and  see. 

A  successful  chemist  needs  the  memory  of  a  politician;  he  has 
to  exert  himself  continually  to  enlarge  his  circle  of  acquaintances, 
and  to  remember  as  much  as  possible  about  their  behavior  under 
all  circumstances.  He  envies  his  brother  physicist,  who  needs  only 
carry  in  his  head  a  neat  little  collection  of  formulas  to  be  able  to 


344         LEADING  AMERICAN  MEN  OF  SCIENCE 

say  exactly  what  will  result  from  any  given  combination  of  forces. 
The  law  of  gravitation  converted  the  chaos  of  forty  centuries  of 
astronomical  observations  into  a  cosmos,  but  chemistry  is  still 
without  a  Newton.  The  astronomer  can  calculate  with  great 
accuracy  the  forces  acting  between  two  planets  in  conjunction 
and  what  would  be  their  movements  in  consequence;  the  physi- 
cist can  do  the  same  for  two  magnets,  but  the  chemist  has  no  meas- 
ure of  the  forces  acting  between  two  elements,  in  fact,  he  cannot 
even  tell  in  many  cases  whether  there  will  be  any  reaction  when  he 
puts  them  together  under  new  conditions. 

The  astonishing  progress  of  physics  during  the  last  half  century, 
resulting  in  the  transformation  of  modern  life  through  new  methods 
for  the  utilization  of  heat,  light  and  electricity,  is  chiefly  due  to 
the  use  of  the  greatest  of  all  scientific  generalizations,  the  law  of 
the  conversion  of  energy.  But  although  this  forms  the  basis 
of  chemistry  as  much  as  of  physics,  chemists  have  had  to  get 
along  without  its  aid  because  there  was  no  known  way  of  applying 
it  to  chemical  phenomena  in  general.  The  physicist  starting  from 
a  few  well-established  fundamental  principles  makes  use,  in  draw- 
ing deductions  from  them,  of  the  most  powerful  intellectual  tool  in 
the  hands  of  man,  but  the  chemist  is  confined  to  the  slower  process 
of  inductive  reasoning  from  multitudinous  observations,  of  which 
very  few  are  capable  of  expression  in  quantitative  form  so  as  to  be 
utilizable  mathematically.  Physics  and  chemistry  have  not  been 
on  speaking  terms,  for  they  talked  different  languages.  It  was 
largely  due  to  Willard  Gibbs  and  others  working  along  the  line  he 
indicated  that  they  are  being  brought  together,  and  the  wedded 
sciences  have  already  proved  fruitful.  The  new  science,  physical 
chemistry,  in  which  the  methods  of  physics  are  applied  to  the  prob- 
lems of  chemistry,  has  within  the  few  years  of  its  existence  made 
very  rapid  progress  and  has  already  solved  many  old  puzzles  and 
brought  to  light  many  new  truths.  We  are  not  yet  in  sight  of 
any  fundamental  principles  which  shall  bring  together  all  the 
complicated  phenomena  of  chemistry,  but  we  owe  to  Willard 
Gibbs  the  first  step  toward  accomplishing  this  by  drawing  from 
the  laws  of  thermodynamics  rules  explaining  a  great  variety  of 


WILLARD  GIBBS  345 

chemical  reactions.  When  we  realize  the  deplorable  condition 
of  chemistry  as  a  purely  empirical  science  with  its  unwieldy 
accumulation  of  facts,  we  can  appreciate  what  a  service  to  the 
science  has  been  his  genius  for  generalization  and  mathematical 
deduction. 

To  devotees  one  life  to  abstract  studies  in  which  the  world  at 
large  can  see  no  practical  value  requires  not  only  an  exceptional 
tenacity  of  purpose  and  the  sacrifice  of  personal  aims  on  the  part 
of  the  individual,  but  also  that  he  be  exceptionally  situated  in 
order  that  his  mind  may  be  free  from  cares  and  distractions  which 
would  interfere  with  the  necessary  concentration  and  continuity 
of  thought.  Willard  Gibbs  was  the  right  man  in  the  right  place. 
His  life,  training  and  circumstances  were  the  best  possible  for  the 
perfect  development  of  his  peculiar  genius.  He  had  the  best 
education  that  America  and  Europe  could  give  him,  and  a  perma- 
nent position  in  Yale  University  which  required  of  him  merely 
the  teaching  of  four  or  five  advanced  students  in  his  own  field  of 
work.  Although  he  received  little  support  from  the  college, 
he  inherited  a  modest  competence,  sufficient  to  provide  for  his  quiet 
tastes  and  keep  him  from  uncongenial  occupations.  For  his 
research  he  required  no  large  and  expensive  laboratory.  The  only 
apparatus  he  needed  was  pencil  and  paper,  and  a  small  upper 
room  in  the  corner  of  the  Sloane  Physical  Laboratory  was  his 
workshop.  Here  until  late  at  night  he  continued  year  after  year 
his  solitary  search  for  truth  for  its  own  sake,  without  any  of  those 
external  stimuli  such  as  the  hope  of  fame  or  fortune  or  the  pressure 
of  necessity  which  most  men  need  to  spur  them  to  such  arduous 
exertion. 

Four  hundred  paces  north  of  this  on  High  Street  stands  a  plain 
square  brick  house  with  the  two  wooden  Ionic  pillars  characteristic 
of  many  New  Haven  houses.  Here  in  his  sister's  family  he  made 
his  home  and  between  these  two  points  he  walked  daily  with  as 
much  regularity  as  Kant  at  Konigsburg.  Except  for  his  student 
years  in  Europe  and  occasional  summer  vacations  in  the  moun- 
tains, his  life  was  practically  confined  to  this  narrow  range. 

Josiah  Willard  Gibbs  was  the  fifth  to  bear  that  name  which 


346          LEADING  AMERICAN  MEN  OF  SCIENCE 

started  from  the  marriage,  in  1747,  of  Henry  Gibbs  with  Katherine, 
daughter  of  the  Honorable  Josiah  Willard,  Secretary  of  the  Prov- 
ince of  Massachusetts.  The  grandfather  of  Henry  Gibbs,  Robert 
Gibbs,  fourth  son  of  Sir  Henry  Gibbs  of  Honington,  Warwickshire, 
came  to  Boston  about  1658. 

Professor  Gibbs  inherited  both  his  scholarly  tastes  and  his 
disposition  from  his  father,  Josiah  Willard  Gibbs,  a  distinguished 
philologian,  who  was  Professor  of  Sacred  Literature  in  Yale 
Divinity  School  from  1824  to  1861.  He  was  born  in  Salem, 
Massachusetts,  in  1790,  and  was  graduated  from  Yale  in  1809,  his 
father,  grandfather  and  great-grandfather  having  been  graduates  of 
Harvard.  What  is  said  of  him  is  quite  as  descriptive  of  his  greater 
son.  "The  elder  Professor  Gibbs  was  remarkable  among  his 
contemporaries  for  profound  scholarship,  for  unusual  modesty 
and  for  the  conscientious  and  painstaking  accuracy  which  charac- 
terized all  his  published  work."  He  married  Mary  Anna  Van 
Cleve,  the  daughter  of  John  Van  Cleve  of  Princeton,  New  Jersey, 
and  the  great-great-granddaughter  of  Rev.  Jonathan  Dickinson 
(Y.  C.,  1706),  the  first  President  of  the  College  of  New  Jersey. 

Until  1846,  Professor  Gibbs  occupied  the  house  of  President 
Day  on  Crown  Street  near  College  Street,  and  there  all  his  children 
were  born.  The  President  meantime  lived  on  the  Campus  in  a 
house  belonging  to  the  College.  When  he  retired  from  the  Presi- 
dency he  took  possession  again  of  his  own  house,  and  Professor 
Gibbs  built  on  High  Street. 

His  fourth  child  and  only  son,  the  subject  of  this  sketch,  was 
born  February  n,  1839.  An  attack  of  scarlet  fever  when  he  was 
two  years  old  left  him  with  a  somewhat  delicate  constitution, 
which  was  the  cause  of  much  anxiety  to  his  parents  and  required 
of  him  through  life  a  careful  attention  to  health  and  regular  habits. 

He  owed  his  preparation  for  college  to  the  Hopkins  Grammar 
School,  of  New  Haven,  and  he  generously  repaid  his  obligation 
to  this  school  by  serving  as  one  of  its  trustees  for  twenty-two  years 
until  his  death.  For  seventeen  years  he  was  Secretary  and  Treas- 
urer of  the  Hopkins  School,  and  was  diligent  and  efficient  in  the 
management  of  its  financial  affairs. 


WILLARD  GIBBS  347 

In  1854  he  entered  Yale  College,  where  he  distinguished  himself 
by  his  proficiency  in  Latin  and  Mathematics,  and  maintained 
high  standing  in  all  his  classes.  In  his  Sophomore  year  he  took 
the  Berkeley  Premium  for  Latin  Composition;  in  his  Junior  year 
the  Bristed  Scholarship,  the  Third  Prize  for  Latin  Examination 
and  the  Berkeley  Premium  again;  in  his  Senior  year  the  Clark 
Scholarship,  the  De  Forest  Mathematical  Prize  and  Latin  Ora- 
tion. He  was  also  elected  for  excellence  in  scholarship  to  the  Phi 
Beta  Kappa  Society. 

After  his  graduation  from  Yale  College  in  1858,  he  remained  for 
five  years  in  New  Haven,  doing  graduate  work  in  physics  and 
mathematics,  for  which  he  received  the  degree  of  M.A.  in  1861 
and  Ph.D.  in  1863.  He  was  then  made  tutor  in  Latin  and  "Natu- 
ral Philosophy,"  but  the  task  of  keeping  large  classes  of  Sopho- 
mores in  order  and  getting  hard  work  out  of  them  was  not  one  for 
which  such  a  shy  and  modest  young  man  was  suited,  and  after 
three  years  of  somewhat  discouraging  effort,  he  went  abroad 
to  continue  his  studies  in  mathematical  physics.  He  had  lost  his 
father  in  1861,  three  years  after  graduation. 

His  first  winter  was  spent  in  Paris,  and  in  1867  he  went  to 
Berlin  to  study  under  Magnus.  The  winter  of  1868-69  was  spent 
in  Heidelberg  under  Helmholtz  and  Kirchhoff,  and  in  March  he 
went  to  the  Riviera  for  a  few  weeks  and  returned  to  America  in 
June,  merely  passing  through  Paris  on  the  way.  Most  of  all  his 
teachers  he  was  influenced  by  Clausius,  the  great  German  physi- 
cist, and  one  of  the  founders  of  the  science  of  thermodynamics. 
In  this  field,  by  extending  the  fundamental  laws  of  heat  and  me- 
chanical energy  discovered  by  Sadi  Carnot  and  Clausius  to  the 
most  varied  departments  of  physics  and  chemistry,  Gibbs  made 
his  chief  contributions  to  human  knowledge.  He  expressed  his 
admiration  for  Clausius  in  an  obituary  notice  contributed  to  the 
American  Academy  of  Science  and  Art.  Clausius'  conception  of 
entropy  was  by  him  raised  to  the  rank  one  of  the  most  important 
of  physical  properties,  and  at  the  head  of  his  principal  paper, 
like  a  scriptural  text,  appears  the  law  of  Clausius:  "The  entropy 
of  the  world  tends  to  a  maximum." 


348          LEADING  AMERICAN  MEN  OF  SCIENCE 

In  July,  1871,  two  years  after  his  return  to  America,  he  was 
elected  Professor  of  Mathematical  Physics  at  Yale,  a  position  which 
he  held  to  the  time  of  his  death  thirty-two  years  later. 

It  was  at  first  an  empty  honor,  for  the  university  to  which  he 
was  attached  was  slow  to  recognize  his  genius.  For  the  first  ten 
years  of  his  professorship  he  received  no  salary  whatever  and  little 
more  than  half  the  regular  salary  for  several  years  thereafter.  The 
most  important  service  that  a  university  can  do  to  the  world  is 
the  early  recognition  and  encouragement  of  men  of  exceptional 
ability  who  are  willing  to  devote  their  lives  to  the  extension  of 
human  knowledge,  yet  this  is  the  service  most  likely  to  be  neglected. 
Yale  has  no  name  upon  her  roll  of  honor  that  stands  for  more  origi- 
nality and  profundity  in  science  than  that  of  Gibbs,  but  it  is  a  mere 
chance  that  it  was  not  lost  to  her.  When  the  Johns  Hopkins 
University  was  started,  Gibbs  was  invited  to  join  its  faculty,  and, 
as  the  story  goes,  had  already  written  a  letter  of  acceptance  intend- 
ing to  mail  it  the  next  morning,  but  Professor  Thatcher  happening 
to  call  on  him  that  evening  he  mentioned  what  he  had  done  and 
referred  to  the  envelope  on  the  mantelpiece  before  them.  His 
friend  begged  him  to  hold  it  for  a  few  days,  and  then  hurried  out 
to  urge  upon  the  authorities  of  the  university  the  importance  of 
retaining  Gibbs  in  the  institution.  Some  hasty  councils  were  held, 
a  small  salary  promised  and  Gibbs,  gratified  by  this  unexpected 
token  of  appreciation,  was  glad  to  agree  to  remain  in  New  Haven. 
This  intervention  Professor  Rowland  of  the  Johns  Hopkins  was 
accustomed  to  call  "the  greatest  crime  of  the  century,"  believ- 
ing that  Gibbs  would  have  found  greater  scope  for  his  powers  and 
would  have  exerted  a  wider  influence  in  a  university  having  a 
larger  corps  of  graduate  students  than  Yale  had  at  that  time.  But 
it  is  hard  to  conceive  of  Gibbs  in  any  other  environment  than 
that  of  Yale,  and  it  is  doubtful  if  his  peculiar  genius  would  have 
thrived  elsewhere. 

In  1873,  when  he  was  thirty-four  years  old,  he  published  his 
first  paper,  a  discussion  of  the  methods  for  the  geometrical  repre- 
sentation of  the  thermodynamical  properties  of  bodies.  The 
most  common  of  such  graphical  methods  is  the  volume-pressure 


WILLARD  GIBBS  349 

diagram,  as  in  the  indicator  cards  for  testing  the  efficiency  of 
steam-engines.  In  this  the  pressure  of  a  gas  is  measured  on  one 
line  and  its  volume  on  a  line  at  right  angles  to  the  first.  A  point 
upon  this  diagram  gives  the  state  of  the  gas  in  regard  to  pressure 
and  volume,  a  line  represents  any  change  of  state,  and  the  areas 
included  measure  the  amount  of  work  done  on  it  in  producing  the 
change.  But  of  course  such  a  diagram  on  a  plane  surface  in  two 
dimensions  cannot  always  clearly  show  the  effects  of  changes  in 
other  physical  properties,  as,  for  example,  temperature.  For  this 
a  solid  model  in  three  dimensions  is  necessary,  and  the  direct 
representation  of  more  than  three  such  variables  is  impossible 
because  we  cannot  geometrically  construct  models  of  more  than 
three  dimensions.  But  Gibbs  showed  that  by  choosing  volume, 
energy  and  entropy  as  the  three  physical  properties  of  a  body  to 
be  represented  by  the  rectangular  coordinates,  a  geometrical  sur- 
face is  formed  which  gives  a  complete  graphical  representation 
of  all  the  relations  between  volume,  temperature,  pressure,  energy 
and  entropy  for  all  states  of  a  body,  whether  single  or  a  mixture 
of  different  states. 

The  value  of  such  graphical  methods  lies  in  the  fact  that  they 
give  at  a  glance  a  clear  and  definite  conception  of  complex  rela- 
tions, such  as  cannot  be  obtained,  at  least  by  the  ordinary  mind, 
from  the  study  of  a  table  of  figures  or  an  algebraic  formula.  A 
mass  of  experimental  data,  very  incomprehensible  in  themselves 
and  even  apparently  improbable  becomes  quite  clear  on  being 
plotted  upon  a  diagram,  and  new  points  of  interest  become  ap- 
parent, and  promising  lines  of  research  are  suggested.  The  use 
of  geometrical  representations,  many  of  which  originated  with 
Gibbs,  has  been  of  great  value  in  the  development  of  the  science 
of  physical  chemistry. 

American  scientists  took  little  notice  of  "  Gibbs'  thermodynami- 
cal  surface"  as  it  is  called,  but  in  England  it  attracted  the  attention 
of  Clerk  Maxwell  who  in  his  Theory  of  Heat  devotes  considera- 
ble space  to  it,  and  constructed  with  his  own  hands  a  plaster  of 
Paris  model  of  such  a  surface  for  water  in  its  three  states  of  ice, 
liquid  and  vapor.  A  cast  of  this  was  sent  to  Gibbs,  who  was  much 


350         LEADING  AMERICAN  MEN  OF  SCIENCE 

pleased  at  this  mark  of  appreciation  from  such  a  high  authority, 
although  he  personally  took  little  interest  in  the  construction  of 
such  models,  for  to  his  mind  they  were  superfluous.  He  did  not 
think  in  mathematical  formulas  like  Maxwell  or  in  mechanical 
models  like  Kelvin,  but  seemed  to  have  some  peculiar  method  of 
his  own  for  conceiving  complex  relations  between  quantities.  The 
model  is  yet  preserved  in  the  Sloane  Laboratory  of  Yale,  the  orig- 
inal in  the  Cavendish  Laboratory  of  Cambridge.  Students,  who 
knew  the  story  of  plaster  surface  and  Gibbs'  extreme  modesty, 
used  to  take  a  secret  delight  in  asking  questions  about  it.  He 
would  reply  that  "it  came  from  Europe,"  and,  further  pressed, 
that  it  was  "made  in  England.". 

In  1876  and  1878,  Professor  Gibbs  published  in  two  parts  in 
the  Transactions  of  the  Connecticut  Academy  of  Arts  and  Sciences 
a  paper  entitled,  "On  the  Equilibrium  of  Heterogeneous  Sub- 
stances," to  which  may  be  accurately  applied  the  much  abused 
term  "an  epoch-making  work,"  for  it  laid  the  foundation  of  the 
new  science  of  physical  chemistry.  It  was  a  triumph  of  creative 
intellect,  rarely  equaled  in  the  history  of  science  for  originality, 
completeness  and  vigor  of  demonstration.  It  often  happens  in 
science  that  certain  discoveries  are,  as  it  were,  "in  the  air,"  and 
it  is  almost  a  matter  of  chance  which  individual  catches  them  and 
by  first  putting  them  into  concrete  form,  gets  the  whole  credit  for 
having  originated  them.  The  way  of  the  new  idea  is  usually  so 
throughly  prepared  by  the  gradual  development  of  current  thought 
that  its  coming  in  some  form  is  inevitable.  America  would  cer- 
tainly have  been  discovered  within  a  few  years  if  Columbus  had 
failed,  and  the  world  would  not  have  been  long  without  the  steam- 
engine  if  Watt  had  never  lived.  But  Professor  Gibbs'  work  in 
physical  chemistry  was  not  the  product  of  such  a  general  trend 
of  thought.  The  materials  of  the  new  science  had  not  been  col- 
lected. He  laid  down  laws  for  phenomena  that  had  not  then  been 
observed,  and  gave  in  advance  solutions  to  problems  that  had 
never  been  formulated.  It  is  a  signal  refutation  of  the  theory  of 
Bacon  that  science  can  only  progress  by  the  slow  accumulation 
of  miscellaneous  facts,  from  which  in  the  course  of  time  could  be 


WILLARD  GIBBS  351 

drawn  general  laws.  On  the  contrary,  it  has  been  found  that  a 
science  develops  the  most  rapidly  when,  even  in  its  infancy,  there 
is  a  definite  theory  capable,  to  use  Gibbs'  phrase,  of  "  giving  shape 
to  research." 

As  has  been  said,  Professor  Gibbs  had  no  direct  forerunner;  it 
is  also  true  that  he  had  no  immediate  followers.  For  over  ten 
years  this  paper  was  almost  completely  neglected,  and  it  was  not 
until  some  of  the  laws  he  enunciated  had  been  independently 
discovered  by  European  chemists,  that  attention  was  drawn  to 
it,  not  by  himself  to  establish  a  barren  claim  to  priority,  but 
by  others  because  in  his  work  these  empirical  laws  were  to  be 
found  more  succinctly  expressed,  and  also  logically  connected 
in  a  complete  and  consistent  system  of  general  principles. 

The  paper  "On  the  Equilibrium  of  Heterogeneous  Substances" 
was  translated  into  German  by  Ostwald  in  1892,  sixteen  years 
after  the  publication  of  the  first  part,  and  put  into  French  by  Le 
Chatelier  in  1899;  in  both  instances  for  the  expressed  purpose  of 
promoting  the  development  of  the  science  of  physical  chemistry 
in  which  they  were  the  teachers.  Ostwald  introduces  the  paper 
with  these  words:  • 

"The  contents  of  this  work  are  to-day  of  immediate  importance 
and  the  interest  it  arouses  is  by  no  means  historical.  For,  of  the 
almost  boundless  wealth  of  results  which  it  contains,  or  to  which 
it  points  the  way,  only  a  small  part  has,  up  to  the  present  time, 
been  made,  fruitful.  Untouched  treasures  in  the  greatest  variety 
and  of  the  greatest  importance  to  the  theoretical  as  well  as  to  the 
experimental  investigator  still  lie  within  its  pages." 

Le  Chatelier  uses  much  the  same  language: 

"Gibbs  was  able  by  a  truly  extraordinary  effort  of  the  scientific 
imagination  and  logical  power  to  posit  all  the  principles  of  the  new 
science  and  to  foresee  all  its  ulterior  applications.  .  .  .  To  Gibbs 
belongs  the  honor  of  having  fused  the  two  sciences  into  one,  chemi- 
cal mechanics,  of  having  constituted  a  completely  defined  body  of 
principles,  to  which  additions  may  be  made  in  the  future,  but  from 
which  the  progress  of  the  science  can  take  nothing  away. 

"His  method,  like  that  of  Newton,  Fresnel  and  Ampere,  consists 
in  starting  with  a  small  number  of  first  principles  or  hypotheses, 


352         LEADING  AMERICAN  MEN  OF  SCIENCE 

and  searching  out  all  the  necessary  consequences  of  those  princi- 
ples, without  ever  introducing  in  the  course  of  the  reasoning  any 
new  hypotheses  or  relaxing  the  rigor  of  the  reasoning." 

Since  most  readers  will  be  obliged  to  form  their  opinion  of  the 
value  of  Gibbs'  work  upon  authority  instead  of  personal  judgment 
it  may  be  useful  to  quote  a  third  estimate,  that  given  by  Professor 
Larmor  in  the  article  on  "Energetics,"  in  the  supplementary 
volumes  of  the  Encyclopedia  Britannica: 

"This  monumental  memoir  made  a  clean  sweep  of  the  subject, 
and  workers  in  the  modern  experimental  science  returned  to  it 
again  and  again  to  find  their  empirical  principles  forecasted  in 
the  light  of  pure  theory,  and  to  derive  fresh  inspiration  for  new 
departures." 

That  Gibbs'  paper  was  so  long  neglected,  and  is  even  at  the 
present  day  not  studied  by  many  chemists,  is  due  chiefly  to  two 
causes:  first,  it  is  exceedingly  abstract,  complex  and  difficult  to 
comprehend,  and,  second,  being  published  in  the  Transactions  of 
the  Connecticut  Academy  of  Arts  and  Sciences,  it  was  not  readily 
accessible  to  all  who  might  have  found  it  profitable.  This  memoir, 
which  is  likely  to  be  more  studied  a  hundred  years  from  now  than 
it  is  to-day,  is  to  be  found  among  papers  on  subjects  of  such  local 
and  transitory  interest  as  the  winds  of  New  Haven  and  plans  for 
a  bridge,  never  built,  between  New  York  City  and  BlackwelPs 
Island.  Still  we  must  remember  that  the  service  which  the  Connec- 
ticut Academy  rendered  him  no  other  agency  stood  ready  to 
render  or  could  have  rendered  as  well,  under  conditions  permitting 
the  careful  elaboration  and  printing  of  the  work,  and  for  this  the 
Academy  deserves  the  hearty  thanks  of  all  friends  of  science.  All 
of  his  work  has  now  been  made  available  by  the  publication,  in 
1906,  of  The  Scientific  Papers  of  J.  Willard  Gibbs,  in  two  volumes 
by  Longmans  Green  &  Co. 

It  will  not  be  out  of  place  to  relate  here  an  incident  of  his  student 
days  at  the  University  of  Berlin,  the  humor  of  which  did  not 
escape  him  then  and  which  has  certainly  lost  none  of  that  quality 
since.  The  conversation  took  place  at  a  social  gathering  to  which 
he  had  been  invited. 


WILLARD  GIBBS  353 

Professor  X:  "Sie  haben  eine  Akademie  der  Wissenschaften 
in  New  Haven,  nicht  wahr?"  (You  have  an  Academy  of  Science 
in  New  Haven,  have  you  not?) 

Gibbs  (innocently) :  "  Ja  wohl !  Davon  bin  ich  Mitglied."  (Yes 
indeed.  I  am  a  member  of  it.) 

Professor  X:  "Ach!  so.  Die  Mitgliedershaft  wird  wohl  ziem- 
lich  ausgebreitet  sein."  (The  membership  must  be  rather  exten- 
sive.) 

American  scientists  are  much  given  to  complaining  that  their 
work  does  not  receive  due  recognition  in  Europe.  This  is  doubt- 
less true  of  the  ordinary  run  of  scientific  papers,  but  this  case,  like 
some  others,  shows  that  really  important  work  may  be  better 
appreciated  abroad  than  at  home.  If  American  chemists  had 
begun  research  twenty-five  years  ago  on  the  lines  indicated  by 
Gibbs,  they  would  have  led  the  world  in  the  development  of 
physical  chemistry,  which  now  they,  in  imitation  of  European 
scientists,  have  recently  taken  up.  Yale  graduates  who  went 
abroad  to  study  chemistry  were  sometimes  first  set  to  study  the 
work  of  Gibbs  whom  they  had  never  known  at  college. 

But  at  the  time  when  it  was  published  there  were  few  chemists 
in  this  country  sufficiently  familiar  with  higher  mathematics  to 
understand  and  utilize  Gibbs'  work.  As  we  have  seen,  chemistry 
differed  from  physics  in  having  no  general  laws  capable  of  mathe- 
matical expression,  and  the  chemist  got  along  very  well  in  his  work 
if  he  knew  arithmetic  as  far  as  percentage,  so  that  he  could  calculate 
his  analyses.  It  was  not  likely  then  that  he  would  take  the  trouble 
to  master  a  mathematical  paper  covering  300  pages  and  including 
over  700  equations,  in  which  only  a  few  simple  chemicals  such  as 
salt,  water,  sulphur  and  hydriodic  acid,  are  mentioned  by  way  of 
illustration.  But  now  as  Le  Chatelier  says,  "the  algebraist  with 
his  formulas  has  drawn  the  attention  of  the  chemists  with  their 
crucibles  and  conquered  their  contempt  for  integrals." 

It  is  difficult  to  convey  to  the  lay  reader  any  clear  idea  of  the 
contents  of  the  paper  "On  the  Equilibrium  of  Heterogeneous  Sub- 
stances." Perhaps  some  insight  may  be  afforded  by  using  the 
words  of  the  Dutch  chemist,  Bakhuis  Roozeboom,  who  was  one 
of  the  first  to  realize  the  importance  of  the  work.  He  says  that  it 


354          LEADING  AMERICAN  MEN  OF  SCIENCE 

deals  with  "the  sociology  of  chemistry."  Previously  chemists  had 
been  absorbed  in  the  recognition  of  chemical  substances  as  indi- 
viduals and  in  studying  their  transformations,  but  Gibbs  dis- 
cusses their  behavior  in  the  presence  of  each  other.  He  shows 
under  what  conditions  of  temperature  and  pressure  different  sub- 
stances, and  the  same  substances  in  different  states,  can  exist 
together  and  what  effect  changes  of  these  conditions  will  have 
upon  the  composition  of  such  mixtures.  Chemists  used  to  confine 
their  attention  as  much  as  possible  to  those  reactions  that  went  in 
one  direction  and  resulted  in  a  practically  complete  change  into 
new  compounds.  They  regarded  incomplete  and  reversible  reac- 
tions with  the  same  aversion  as  pre-Darwinian  botanists  did, 
varieties  which  did  not  fit  into  their  system  of  classification.  Now 
chemists  find  the  most  interesting  and  most  common  reactions  are 
those  that  proceed  only  partially  in  one  direction  when  they  are 
checked  by  the  opposite  tendency  arid  an  equilibrium  established. 
The  study  of  the  effect  of  the  conditions,  such  as  temperature, 
pressure  and  relative  amount  of  the  components,  upon  such  an 
equilibrium  is  one  of  the  most  fruitful  lines  of  investigation  now 
being  carried  on. 

The  best  known  of  the  formulas  of  this  paper  is  that  called 
"  Gibbs'  Phase  Rule."    It  is  usually  expressed  in  this  form: 

F  =  C+  2-P. 

Where  P  denotes  the  number  of  phases  (or  distinct  and  separa- 
ble masses  of  matter,  such  as  chemical  elements  or  compounds  or 
solutions  or  mixtures  of  gases),  C  denotes  the  number  of  compo- 
nents (or  chemical  substances  forming  the  constituents)  and  F 
denotes  the  number  of  degrees  of  freedom  (or  the  number  of  the 
three  variable  factors,  temperature,  pressure  and  volume,  which 
must  be  arbitrarily  fixed  in  order  to  define  the  condition  of  the 
system).  For  example,  let  us  take  water  alone,  in  which  case  C  =  i. 
If  we  have  water  only  in  the  form  of  a  gas  (steam  or  vapor),  there- 
fore in  one  phase,  P  =  i;  therefore  F  =  2,  that  is,  we  must  give  two 
of  the  variables,  say,  the  pressure  and  the  temperature,  before  we 
can  know  the  third,  the  volume.  If  we  have  water  in  contact 


WILLARD  GIBBS  355 

with  its  vapor,  we  have  two  phases  P  =  2,  and  therefore  F=i, 
that  is,  if  anyone  of  the  three  conditions  are  decided  upon,  the 
other  two  must  follow.  When  we  consider  water,  ice  and  vapor 
altogether  P  =  3,  and  therefore  F  =  o,  that  is,  none  of  the  variable 
conditions  can  be  chosen  arbitrarily,  for  water,  ice  and  vapor  can 
exist  together  at  only  one  temperature  (nearly  o°  Centigrade) 
and  one  pressure  (4.6  millimeters  of  mercury).  If  the  temperature 
is  lowered,  all  the  water  freezes;  if  the  temperature  is  raised,  all 
the  ice  melts;  in  any  event  one  of  the  phases  disappears. 

By  the  use  then  of  this  simple  little  arithmetical  rule  involving 
after  the  determination  of  the  factors  only  the  addition  and  sub- 
traction of  numbers  usually  less  than  three,  the  behavior  of  the 
most  complicated  mixtures  under  all  possible  changes  of  condition 
is  made  known  when  once  a  few  data  are  obtained  by  experiment, 
and  it  has  found  application  in  many  widely  diverse  fields  of 
science  and  industry.  The  reader  who  is  sufficiently  interested  in 
the  subject  to  follow  it  further  is  referred  to  the  two  books  on  the 
Phase  Rule  by  Bancroft  and  by  Findlay.  The  Dutch  chemists 
were  the  first  to  make  use  of  Gibbs'  work,  and  Roozeboom,  Van 
der  Waals,  Van't  Hoff,  Schreinemakers  and  others  have  within 
the  last  few  years  by  the  aid  of  the  Phase  Rule  and  other  laws  of 
equilibrium  immensely  increased  our  knowledge  of  such  difficult 
matters  as  solutions,  alloys  and  crystallizations.  As  examples 
of  its  practical  applications  may  be  mentioned  its  use  in  the  study 
of  sedimentary  deposits,  the  metallurgy  of  iron  and  the  igneous 
rocks.  The  Stassfurt  salt  deposits  which  supply  the  world  with 
potash  for  fertilizers  are  composed  of  a  curious  and  complicated 
mixture  of  various  sodium,  potassium,  magnesium  and  calcium 
salts  in  layers  aggregating  a  thousand  feet  in  thickness.  Professor 
Van't  Hoff  and  his  pupils  have  been  for  the  last  eight  years  engaged 
upon  this  problem,  and  have  worked  out  the  conditions  under 
which  .these  strata  were  deposited  by  the  evaporation  of  sea  water 
in  a  land-locked  sea.  Iron  has  been  most  useful  to  man  because 
it  is  really  several  metals  in  one.  By  the  addition  of  minute  quan- 
tities of  carbon  it  can  be  changed  from  soft,  malleable  wrought- 
iron,  to  hard,  brittle  cast-iron,  or  to  steel  which  can  be  tempered  in 


356          LEADING  AMERICAN  MEN  OF  SCIENCE 

many  different  ways.  But  the  cause  of  these  remarkable  changes 
and  the  conditions  by  which  they  were  produced  were  not  under- 
stood until  the  application  of  the  Phase  Rule  to  the  subject  of  the 
iron  carbides,  and  many  disasters  have  occurred  from  unexpected 
weaknesses  in  structural  iron  which  in  the  future  we  shall  be  better 
able  to  avoid.  The  igneous  rocks,  such  as  granite,  basalt  and 
porphyry,  which  form  the  principal  part  of  the  earth  so  far  as  we 
know  it,  are  composed  of  mixed  silicates  which  were  too  numerous 
for  the  mineralogist  to  name  and  too  complex  for  the  chemist  to 
classify.  Now,  however,  they  are  being  studied  very  successfully, 
and  the  geologist,  being  given  by  the  use  of  the  Phase  Rule,  the 
conditions  of  heat  and  pressure  under  which  they  were  formed,  will 
be  able  to  explain  more  satisfactorily  the  building  of  the  world. 

I  have  devoted  so  much  space  to  this  paper  of  Gibbs  as  an 
example  of  the  effect  of  theory  upon  scientific  research  that  it  will 
be  necessary  to  dismiss  briefly  his  later,  and,  in  part,  equally  impor- 
tant work.  Between  1881  and  1884,  Professor  Gibbs  developed 
and  taught  his  system  of  Vector  Analysis,  a  new  algebraic  method 
of  treatment  of  physical  quantities,  like  force,  momentum  and 
velocity,  which  have  direction  as  well  as  magnitude  and  can  there- 
fore be  represented  by  lines.  This  work  is  in  many  respects  an 
improvement  on  the  Quaternions  of  Sir  William  Hamilton,  which 
has  never  been  a  favorite  method  of  analysis  with  physicists.  It 
was  printed  in  1881—84  for  private  circulation  among  mathema- 
ticians by  Professor  Gibbs,  but  was  published  in  more  complete 
form  by  his  pupil,  Dr.  E.  B.  Wilson,  only  in  1901. 

In  1886,  Professor  Gibbs  as  Vice-President  of  the  Section  of 
Mathematics  and  Astronomy  of  the  American  Association  for  the 
Advancement  of  Science,  gave  an  address  on  "Multiple  Algebra," 
a  development  of  the  methods  of  Grassman.  An  astronomical 
paper  on  a  new  method  for  the  determination  by  the  employ- 
ment of  Vector  Analysis  of  elliptic  orbits  from  three  complete  ob- 
servations was  published  by  the  National  Academy  of  Science 
three  years  later;  reprinted  by  Buchholz;  translated  into  German 
and  incorporated  in  the  last  edition  of  Klinkerfues's  Theoretische 
Astronomie. 


WILLARD  GIBBS  357 

He  devoted  much  attention  to  the  electromagnetic  theory  of 
light,  originated  by  Clerk  Maxwell,  which  he  defended  against 
the  elastic  ether  theory  by  showing  its  adequacy  for  explaining 
the  phenomena  of  refraction  and  dispersion  of  light.  The  discovery 
by  Hertz  of  the  electric  waves  now  used  in  wireless  telegraphy  has 
since  given  experimental  proof  of  the  correctness  of  Maxwell's 
theory.  Gibbs  also  made  important  contributions  to  the  theory  of 
galvanic  cells,  by  which  can  be  calculated  the  electromotive  force 
due  to  differences  in  the  concentration  of  the  dilute  solutions  of 
the  cells  or  in  the  pressure  in  the  case  of  gas  batteries. 

His  final  work  was  on  the  Elementary  Principles  of  Statistical 
Mechanics  in  which  he  attempts  the  gigantic  task  of  applying 
mathematical  methods  to  the  study  of  the  motions  of  very  complex 
systems  too  minute  and  complicated  for  detailed  observation,  as, 
for  example,  the  vibrations  of  the  molecules  of  a  solid  due  to  heat. 
This  work  has  not  yet  been  sufficiently  studied  for  its  importance 
to  be  fully  understood,  for  it  was  published  in  1902,  as  one  of  the 
Yale  Bicentennial  volumes.  It  is  thought  that  the  intense  applica- 
tion and  protracted  labor  required  for  the  preparation  of  this  work 
hastened  his  death,  which  occurred  after  a  few  days'  illness  on 
April  28,  1903,  at  the  age  of  sixty-four.  He  was  never  a  strong 
man  and,  like  Kant,  it  was  only  by  great  carefulness  of  his  health, 
and  severe  restriction  of  his  activities  and  diversions  that  he  was 
able  to  accomplish  so  much  original  work. 

He  was  of  medium  height  and  slight  figure,  with  delicate  fea- 
tures, and  bright  blue  eyes  that  twinkled  quizzically  when  he  had 
got  a  student  cornered.  His  hair  and  full  beard  at  the  time  of  his 
death  were  pure  white.  He  was  punctual  at  every  appointment, 
fulfilling  every  duty  imposed  upon  him,  however  uncongenial, 
with  the  utmost  conscientiousness.  Yale  knew  him  as  "the  man 
who  never  made  a  mistake."  At  the  meetings  of  the  Yale  Mathe- 
matical Club  which  he  founded  and  invariably  attended,  he  lis- 
tened with  patience  and  consideration  even  to  the  most  amateurish 
efforts.  He  was  always  ready  to  give  his  time  and  attention  to  any 
student  coming  to  him  for  assistance,  and  would  devote  the  whole 
of  the  lecture  hour  and  as  much  more  as  necessary  to  the  explana- 


358          LEADING  AMERICAN  MEN  OF  SCIENCE 

tion  of  any  point,  however  simple,  if  he  found  that  one  of  his  pupils 
failed  to  understand  it,  even  at  a  time  when  he  refused  an  offer 
of  five  dollars  an  hour  for  doing  outside  work.  His  customary 
remark  at  the  end  of  every  demonstration  was:  "Is  it  proved?" 
He  was  once  asked  what  he  meant  by  this,  and  explained  that 
different  minds  required  different  degrees  and  kinds  of  proof. 
That  this  is  true  to  a  much  greater  extent  than  he  realized  is  shown 
by  the  fact  that  some  students,  not  particularly  apt  in  mathematics, 
found  his  lectures  difficult  or  impossible  to  follow.  This  was  due 
to  his  complete  absorption  in  his  subject  and  his  failure  to  com- 
prehend that  others  could  not  take  as  long  steps  as  he  could.  The 
tendency  of  his  mind  toward  generalization,  in  which  lay  his  unique 
power,  was  shown  by  a  remark  frequently  upon  his  lips,  "The 
whole  is  simpler  than  its  parts." 

His  lectures  were  conversational,  though  usually  well  prepared 
and  straightforward,  never  twice  alike,  so  students  often  took  what 
was  nominally  the  same  course  a  second  year.  Occasionally  if  a 
new  idea  occurred  to  him  in  the  course  of  a  lecture,  he  would  for- 
get his  students  and  work  it  out  on  the  blackboard.  He  carried 
few  notes  to  the  class  room,  and  those  merely  the  chief  formulas. 
If  he  forgot  a  step  in  writing  out  a  demonstration,  he  would  stand 
and  softly  whistle,  occasionally  darting  nervously  across  the  room 
to  fix  the  radiator.  On  leaving  the  class  room  he  was  apt  to  come 
back  two  or  three  times  to  see  if  he  had  not  forgotten  something. 

His  students  were  never  neglected  because  they  were  few  or 
because  they  interrupted  his  research  work.  Except  in  the  very 
first  years  his  courses  occupied  on  an  average  of  seven  hours  a 
week,  and  they  were  always  freshly  prepared  and  original.  Some- 
times with  a  single  student  before  him,  in  such  a  subject  as  the 
electromagnetic  theory,  he  would  sit  for  two  hours  at  a  time  in 
his  characteristic  posture,  his  hands  folded  and  forefingers 
touching,  developing  his  own  system  and  extending  it  into  new 
fields. 

To  those  who  were  prepared  for  them,  his  lectures  were  most 
inspiring  on  account  of  their  clear  and  logical  demonstrations, 
their  comprehensiveness  and  their  pertinent  and  graphic  illustra- 


WILLARD  GIBBS  359 

tions.  One  of  his  pupils,  Prof.  H.  A.  Bumstead,  in  a  sketch  of 
Willard  Gibbs,  published  in  the  American  Journal  of  Science, 
speaks  of  his  lectures  as  follows: 

"No  necessary  qualification  to  a  statement  was  ever  omitted, 
and  on  the  other  hand  it  seldom  failed  to  receive  the  most  general 
application  of  which  it  was  capable.  His  students  had  ample 
opportunity  to  learn  what  may  be  regarded  as  known,  what  is 
guessed  at,  what  a  proof  is  and  how  far  it  goes.  Though  he 
disregarded  many  of  the  shibboleths  of  the  mathematical  rigorists, 
his  logical  processes  were  really  of  the  most  severe  type;  in  power 
of  deduction,  of  generalization,  in  insight  into  hidden  relations, 
in  critical  acumen  and  in  utter  lack  of  prejudice,  and  in  the  philo- 
sophical breadth  of  his  view  of  the  object  and  aim  of  physics,  he 
has  had  few  superiors  in  the  history  of  the  science,  and  no  student 
could  come  in  contact  with  this  severe  and  impartial  mind  without 
feeling  profoundly  its  influence  in  all  his  future  studies  of  nature. 
In  personal  character  the  same  great  qualities  were  apparent, 
unassuming  in  manner,  genial  and  kindly  in  his  intercourse  with 
his  fellow  men,  never  showing  impatience  or  irritation,  devoid  of 
personal  ambition  of  the  baser  sort  or  of  the  slightest  desire  to 
exalt  himself,  he  went  far  toward  realizing  the  ideal  of  the  unselfish 
Christian  gentleman.  In  the  minds  of  those  who  knew  him,  the 
greatness  of  his  intellectual  achievements  will  never  overshadow 
the  beauty  and  dignity  of  his  life." 

Perhaps  Professor  Gibbs  would  have  been  more  successful  as 
a  teacher  if  he  had  followed  the  custom  of  university  professors  in 
making  use  of  the  labors  of  his  students  and  working  with  them, 
but  he  never  took  them  into  his  confidence,  and  he  rarely  let  any- 
one know  what  he  was  engaged  upon  until  his  work  was  complete 
and  ready  for  publication.  His  work  was  solitary;  he  had  no  need 
of  the  stimulus  of  conversation  or  correspondence  with  men 
interested  in  the  same  subjects.  He  left  comparatively  few  notes, 
and  these  are  brief  and  elliptical,  for  he  carried  his  work  in  his 
head  until  well  thought  out.  Even  then  he  was  reluctant  to  give 
it  publicity. 

One  of  his  students  captivated  by  his  system  of  Vector  Analysis, 
told  him  that  he  thought  it  could  be  thrown  into  a  form  that  could 
be  more  widely  useful  and  even  introduced  into  sophomore  mathe- 


360          LEADING  AMERICAN  MEN  OF  SCIENCE 

matics.  But  Gibbs  replied:  "What  is  the  good  of  that?  It  is 
complete  as  it  is." 

He  had  such  confidence  in  the  results  of  his  theoretical  deduc- 
tions that  he  took  little  interest  personally  in  their  experimental 
verification,  yet  he  was  fertile  in  suggestions  of  profitable  lines  of 
research,  and  had  a  keen  perception  of  practical  difficulties  which 
would  be  encountered.  In  his  lectures  he  not  infrequently  would 
spend  considerable  time  in  describing  the  apparatus  by  which  some 
crucial  experiment  might  be  performed.  Though  he  was  so  exclu- 
sively occupied  with  the  theoretical  side  of  his  subject,  he  was  by 
no  means  wanting  in  mechanical  ingenuity.  As  a  boy  his  favorite 
amusement  was  the  making  of  mechanical  toys,  and  after  leaving 
college  and  before  entering  on  his  professional  work  he  devised 
and  patented  an  automatic  car-brake. 

It  must  be  noted  also  that  all  his  work,  even  the  most  abstract, 
had  a  definite  practical  purpose.  He  studied  mathematics  for 
its  usefulness  in  the  interpretation  of  nature,  never  as  a  mere 
mental  amusement  nor  for  the  exercise  and  display  of  intellectual 
power.  As  he  once  remarked  in  a  discussion  at  the  Mathematical 
Club,  "A  mathematician  may  say  anything  he  pleases,  but  a 
physicist  must  be  at  least  partially  sane."  In  an  address  on 
"Values"  on  the  occasion  of  the  twenty-fifth  anniversary  of  the 
founding  of  the  club  he  said  that  the  difference  between  the  great 
man  and  the  lesser  men  in  science  lies  in  their  relative  power  of 
perceiving  the  important  thing,  which  is  not  necessarily  the 
hardest  thing.  The  great  man  sees  clearly  what  is  most  needed 
at  the  time  and  does  that. 

Conscientiousness,  caution,  modesty  and  unselfishness  were 
the  prominent  features  in  his  character.  He  was  so  careful  to 
give  due  credit  to  the  work  of  his  predecessors  that  he  often  read 
into  a  paper  much  more  than  its  author  had  thought  of.  He  had 
a  just  appreciation  of  the  value  of  his  own  discoveries,  but  shrank 
from  any  form  of  praise  or  publicity.  In  1901  the  Copley  Medal 
of  the  Royal  Society  of  London,  which  is  awarded  for  the  most 
important  scientific  work  done  in  any  country,  was  given  to 
Willard  Gibbs,  but  he  deprecated  the  congratulations  of  his 


WILLARD  GIBBS  361 

friends  who  had  read  the  announcement,  with  the  remark:  "Better 
not  say  anything  about  it.  Very  likely  it  is  an  error."  To  a  friend 
who  spoke  of  seeing  one  of  his  letters  on  electromagnetic  theory 
in  Nature  he  said,  "Oh,  did  they  really  publish  it?"  Professor 
Ostwald  of  Berlin  tried  to  get  him  to  come  to  Europe  to  be  lionized, 
but  he  persistently  refused. 

Although  the  recognition  of  his  achievements  was  so  long 
delayed,  yet  before  his  death  he  had  received  honors  from  many 
parts  of  the  world.  Besides  the  Copley  Medal  of  the  Royal 
Society,  he  received  the  Rumford  Medal  of  the  American 
Academy  of  Science  and  Arts;  he  was  awarded  honorary 
doctorates  from  the  universities  of  Erlangen,  Princeton, 
Christiania  and  Williams  College;  he  was  elected  to  honorary  or 
corresponding  membership  in  the  American  Academy  of  Boston, 
the  National  Academy  of  Washington  and  the  Royal  Society  of 
London,  the  Berlin  Academy  and  the  French  Institute,  as  well 
as  learned  societies  in  Haarlem,  Gottingen,  London,  Cambridge, 
Manchester,  Amsterdam  and  Bavaria. 

As  an  estimate  of  the  character  of  Prof.  Willard  Gibbs,  no 
more  appropriate  words  can  be  used  than  those  in  which  he  has 
unconsciously  revealed  his  own  personality  and  ideals  in  pay- 
ing a  tribute  to  the  character  of  a  colleague.  In  his  obituary 
sketch  of  Prof.  Hubert  Anson  Newton,  he  concludes  a  discussion 
of  his  mathematical  and  astronomical  work  with  these  sentences: 

"These  papers  show  more  than  the  type  of  mind  of  the  author; 
they  give  no  uncertain  testimony  concerning  the  character  of  the 
man.  In  all  these  papers  we  see  a  love  of  honest  work ;  an  aversion 
to  shams,  a  distrust  of  rash  generalizations  and  speculations  based 
on  uncertain  premises.  He  was  never  anxious  to  add  one  more 
guess  on  doubtful  matter  in  the  hope  of  hitting  the  truths,  or  what 
pass  as  such  for  a  time,  but  was  always  willing  to  take  infinite 
pains  in  the  most  careful  test  of  every  theory.  To  these  qualities 
was  joined  a  modesty  which  forbade  the  pushing  of  his  own  claims; 
and  he  desired  no  reputation  except  the  unsought  tribute  of 
competent  judges." 

In  an  exceedingly  interesting  series  of  articles  on  "Josiah 
Willard  Gibbs  and  his  Relation  to  Modern  Science,"  published 


362          LEADING  AMERICAN  MEN  OF  SCIENCE 

in  the  Popular  Science  Monthly,  May,  1909  et  seq.,  Dr.  Fielding 
H.  Garrison  defines  the  characteristics  of  his  genius  in  the 
following  language: 

"  Ostwald,  in  his  interesting  Biologie  des  Naturforschers,  has 
divided  men  of  science  into  two  classes:  The  classicists  (Klas- 
siker),  men  like  Newton,  Lagrange,  Gauss,  Harvey,  who,  deal- 
ing with  a  limited  number  of  ideas  in  their  work,  seek  formal 
perfection  and  attain  it,  leaving  no  school  of  followers  behind 
them,  but  only  the  effect  of  the  work  itself;  and  the  romanticists 
(Romantiker) ,  who  like  Liebig,  Faraday,  Darwin,  Maxwell, 
are  bold  explorers  in  unknown  fields,  men  fertile  in  ideas,  leav- 
ing many  followers  and  many  loose  ends  of  unfinished  work 
which  others  complete.  In  the  logical  perfection  of  his  work 
and  in  his  unusual  talent  for  developing  a  theme  in  the  most 
comprehensive  and  exhaustive  manner,  Gibbs  was  emphatically 
the  Klassiker.  But  in  the  scientific  achievement  of  his  early 
manhood  he  showed  something  of  the  spirit  of  the  Romantiker 
also.  His  mathematical  theory  of  chemical  equilibrium  was, 
far  in  advance  of  any  experimental  procedure  known  or  con- 
templated at  the  time  of  its  publication,  and,  although  some 
of  his  predecessors,  like  James  Thomson,  Massieu,  Horstmann, 
had  come  within  sight  of  the  new  land  and  even  skirted  its 
shores,  Gibbs,  with  the  adventurous  spirit  of  the  true  pioneer, 
not  only  conquered  and  explored  it,  but  systematically  sur- 
veyed it,  living  to  see  part  of  his  territory  occupied  by  a  thriving 
band  of  workers,  the  physical  chemists.  Cayley,  in  his  report 
on  theoretical  dynamics  in  1857,  expressed  his  conviction  that 
the  science  of  statics  '  does  not  admit  of  much  ulterior  develop- 
ment.' The  work  of  Gibbs  has  added  to  it  the  immense  field 
of  chemical  equilibrium  and  wherever  'phases,'  'heterogeneous 
systems,'  'chemical  and  thermodynamic  potentials,'  or  'criti- 
cal states'  are  mentioned  he  has  left  his  impress  upon  modern 
scientific  thought.  It  is  not  without  reason  then,  that  Ostwald 
has  called  this  mathematician  '  the  founder  of  chemical  energet- 
ics,' asserting  that  'he  has  given  new  form  and  substance  to 
chemistry  for  another  century  at  least.'  " 


SIMON  NEWCOMB 

ASTRONOMER 

1835-1909 
BY  MARCUS  BENJAMIN 

"To  him  the  wandering  stars  revealed 
The  secrets  in  their  cradle  sealed; 
The  far-off,  frozen  sphere  that  swings 
Through  ether,  zoned  with  lucid  rings; 
The  orb  that  rolls  in  dim  eclipse 
Wide  wheeling,  round  its  long  ellipse, — 
His  name  Urania  writes  with  these, 
And  stamps  it  on  her  Pleiades." 

THESE  lines  written  by  Oliver  Wendell  Holmes  on  one  of  Har- 
vard's most  eminent  men  of  science  apply  with  even  greater  force 
to  Simon  Newcomb,  who  by  common  consent  had  achieved  the 
reputation  of  being  the  foremost  astronomer  of  his  time  and  easily 
succeeded  to  the  honor  of  being  the  world's  Nestor  of  Science  on 
the  death  of  Lord  Kelvin.  Sir  Robert  S.  Ball,  formerly  Astrono- 
mer Royal  of  Ireland  and  now  Director  of  the  Astronomical 
Observatory  in  Cambridge,  England,  wrote  of  him:  "Science  has 
sustained  one  of  the  most  severe  blows  of  recent  years.  America 
has  lost  her  most  eminent  man  of  science,  and  not  since  the  death 
of  Adams  has  the  world  been  deprived  of  so  illustrious  an  investiga- 
tor in  theoretical  astronomy."  He  was,  says  the  same  writer, 
"the  most  conspicuous  figure  among  the  brilliant  band  of  contem- 
porory  American  astronomers." 

Simon  Newcomb  was  the  sixth  in  descent  from  Simon  Newcomb 
who  was  born  in  Massachusetts,  in  1666,  and  died  in  Lebanon, 

363    , 


364          LEADING  AMERICAN  MEN  OF  SCIENCE 

Connecticut,  in  1745.  His  paternal  ancestors  moved  to  Canada 
in  1761,  and  in  Wallace,  Nova  Scotia,  on  March  12,  1835,  the 
famous  astronomer  was  born.  His  father  was  John  B.  Newcomb, 
who  followed  the  precarious  occupation  of  a  country  school-teacher, 
seldom  remaining  in  the  same  place  for  more  than  one  or  two  years, 
and  he  is  described  by  his  son  as  being  "the  most  rational  and 
dispassionate  of  men."  From  his  Reminiscences  we  learn  that 
of  his  father's  family  none  acquired  "great  wealth,"  held  "a 
high  official  position,"  or  did  "anything  to  make  his  name  live  in 
history."  Simon  Newcomb's  mother  was  Emily  Prince,  a  descend- 
ant of  a  long-lived  New  England  family,  that  was  widely  connected, 
and  she  included  among  her  ancestors  Elder  William  Brewster, 
who  came  over  in  the  Mayflower. 

The  story  of  the  courtship  of  these  two  is  of  special  interest. 
In  his  search  for  her  whom  he  believed  would  make  him  a  fitting 
wife,  John  B.  Newcomb  had  gone  on  a  visit  to  Moncton,  New 
Brunswick,  and  there  attracted  by  the  strains  of  music  from  a 
church,  he  entered  the  building  and  found  a  religious  meeting  in 
progress.  His  eye  was  at  once  arrested  by  the  face  and  head  of  a 
young  woman  playing  on  a  melodeon,  who  was  leading  the  sing- 
ing. He  sat  in  such  a  position  that  he  could  carefully  scan  her 
face  and  movements.  As  he  continued  this  study  the  conviction 
grew  upon  him  that  here  was  the  object  of  his  search.  He  soon 
made  her  acquaintance,  paid  her  his  addresses,  and  became  her 
accepted  suitor.  He  was  fond  of  astronomy,  and  during  the  months 
of  his  courtship  one  of  his  favorite  occupations  was  to  take  her 
out  of  an  evening  and  show  her  the  constellations.  It  is  even  said 
that  among  the  day-dreams  in  which  they  indulged,  one  was  that 
their  first-born  might  be  an  astronomer. 

Of  his  mother,  Newcomb  wrote:  "She  was  the  most  profoundly 
and  sincerely  religious  woman  with  whom  I  was  ever  acquainted, 
and  my  father  always  entertained  and  expressed  the  highest 
admiration  for  her  mental  gifts,  to  which  he  attributed  whatever 
talents  his  children  might  have  possessed."  Her  strength  was 
unequal  to  her  surroundings,  and  she  died  at  the  early  age  of 
thirty-seven  years. 


SIMON  NEWCOMB  365 

During  his  boyhood  days,  owing  to  the  nature  of  his  father's 
vocation,  the  movings  of  the  family  were  frequent,  although  until 
he  was  four  years  of  age  Simon  lived  in  the  home  of  his  paternal 
grandfather,  about  two  miles  from  the  village  of  Wallace.  Here 
he  was  taught  the  alphabet  by  his  aunts  and  he  says,  himself:  "I 
was  reading  the  Bible  in  class  and  beginning  geography  when  I 
was  six."  In  greater  detail  perhaps,  he  writes: 

"I  began  to  study  arithmetic  when  I  was  five  years  old,  and 
when  six,  I  am  told,  I  was  very  fond  of  doing  sums.  At  twelve  I 
was  studying  algebra,  and  about  that  time  I  began  to  teach.  I 
remember  that  I  was  thirteen  when  I  first  took  up  Euclid.  There 
was  a  copy  of  it  among  my  father's  works." 

After  the  boy  had  grown  to  manhood  his  father  wrote  for  him 
an  account  of  his  early  life  from  which  the  following  extract  is 
taken: 

"At  fifteen  you  studied  Euclid,  and  were  enraptured  with  it. 
It  is  a  little  singular  that  all  this  time  you  never  showed  any  self- 
esteem  ;  or  spoke  of  getting  into  employment  at  some  future  day, 
among  the  learned.  The  pleasure  of  intellectual  exercise  in 
demonstrating  or  analyzing  a  geometrical  problem,  or  solving  an 
algebraic  equation,  seemed  to  be  your  only  object.  Your  almost 
intuitive  knowledge  of  geography,  navigation,  and  nautical  matters 
in  general  caused  me  to  think  most  ardently  of  writing  to  the 
Admiral  at  Halifax,  to  know  if  he  would  give  you  a  place  among  the 
midshipmen  of  the  navy;  but  my  hope  of  seeing  you  a  leading 
lawyer,  and  finally  a  judge  on  the  bench,  together  with  the  pos- 
sibility that  your  mother  would  not  consent,  and  the  possibility  that 
you  would  not  wish  to  go,  deterred  me." 

Newcomb  in  his  Reminiscences  of  this  period  writes: 

"Among  the  books  which  profoundly  influenced  my  mode  of 
life  and  thought  during  the  period  embraced  in  the  foregoing 
extracts  were  Fowler's  Phrenology  and  Combe's  Constitution  of 
Man.  It  may  appear  strange  to  the  reader  if  a  system  so  com- 
pletely exploded  as  that  of  phrenology  should  have  any  value  as  a 
mental  discipline.  Its  real  value  consisted,  not  in  what  it  taught 
about  the  position  of  the  *  organs/  but  in  presenting  a  study  of 
human  nature,  which,  if  not  scientific  in  form,  was  truly  so  in 


366          LEADING  AMERICAN  MEN  OF  SCIENCE 

spirit.     I  acquired  the  habit  of  looking  on  the  characters  and 
capabilities  of  men  as  the  result  of  their  organism." 

Referring  to  the  small  collection  of  books  in  the  possession  of 
his  paternal  grandfather  he  says:  "  Among  those  purely  literary 
were  several  volumes  of  the  Spectator  and  Roderick  Random.  Of 
the  former  I  read  a  good  deal.  Three  mathematical  books  were 
in  the  collection,  Hammond's  Algebra,  Simpson's  Euclid,  and 
Moore's  Navigator"  These  works  were  literally  absorbed  by 
him,  and  he  also  mentions  Mrs.  Marcet's  Conversations  on  Natural 
Philosophy  and  Lardner's  Popular  Lectures  on  Science  and  Art, 
as  books  that  greatly  interested  him  during  this  period  of  his 
youth. 

His  desire  for  learning  had  exhausted  the  slender  resources  of 
his  paternal  home  and  so  at  the  age  of  sixteen,  while  on  a  visit  to 
his  grandparents,  in  Moncton,  he  went  to  study  with  one  Doctor 
Foshay,  who  lived  in  the  village  of  Salisbury,  fifteen  miles  on  the 
road  to  St.  John.  An  agreement  was  made  with  the  physician 
which  read  as  follows: 

"S.  N.  to  live  with  the  doctor,  rendering  him  all  the  assistance  in 
his  power  in  preparing  medicines,  attending  to  business,  and  doing 
generally  whatever  might  be  required  of  him  in  the  way  of  help. 
The  Doctor,  on  his  part,  to  supply  S.  N.'s  bodily  needs  in  food  and 
clothing,  and  teach  him  medical  botany  and  the  botanic  system 
of  medicine.  The  contract  to  terminate  when  the  other  party 
should  attain  the  age  of  twenty-one." 

This  contract  so  gladly  made  soon  became  unsatisfactory  and 
young  Newcomb  found  himself 

"Physician,  apothecary,  chemist  and  druggist, 
Girl  about  house  and  boy  in  the  barn." 

With  greater  exactness  he  says:  "I  cared  for  the  horse,  cut  wood 
for  the  fire,  searched  field  and  forest  for  medicinal  herbs,  ordered 
other  medicines  from  a  druggist  in  St.  John,  kept  the  doctor's 
accounts,  made  his  pills,  and  mixed  his  powders." 

This  unfortunately  left  little  time  for  reading  and  study  and 
soon  he  began  to  realize  that  his  growing  years  were  being  wasted. 


SIMON  NEWCOMB  367 

He  therefore  determined  to  run  away.  After  careful  preparation 
he  chose  September  13,  1853,  as  the  day  on  which  to  leave.  In  a 
short  letter  addressed  to  the  doctor,  he  wrote: 

"When  I  came  to  live  with  you,  it  was  agreed  that  you  should 
make  a  physician  of  me.  This  agreement  you  have  never  shown 
the  slightest  intention  of  fulfilling  since  the  first  month  I  was  with 
you.  You  have  never  taken  me  to  see  a  patient,  you  have  never 
given  me  any  instruction  or  advice  whatever.  Beside  this,  you 
must  know  that  your  wife  treats  me  in  a  manner  that  is  no  longer 
bearable.  I  therefore  consider  the  agreement  annulled  from  your 
failure  to  fulfill  your  part  of  it,  and  I  am  going  off  to  make  my  own 
way  in  the  world.  When  you  read  this,  I  shall  be  far  away,  and 
it  is  not  likely  that  we  shall  ever  meet  again." 

He  successfully  eluded  pursuit  and  made  his  way  to  Salem, 
Massachusetts,  where  he  found  his  father  who  "after  the  death 
of  my  mother  had  come  to  seek  his  fortune  in  the  '  States.'  "  From 
Massachusetts  they  proceeded  to  the  eastern  part  of  Maryland, 
where  at  Massey's  Cross  Roads  in  Kent  County,  early  in  1854, 
he  began  his  independent  career  as  a  teacher  of  a  country  school. 
A  year  later  he  got  "a  somewhat  better  school  at  the  pleasant 
little  village  of  Sudlersville." 

In  the  summer  of  1854  he  made  his  first  visit  to  Washington, 
and  "speculated  upon  the  possible  object  of  a  queer  old  sandstone 
building,  which  seemed  so  different  from  anything  else,  and  heard 
for  the  first  time  of  the  Smithsonian  Institution."  Books  of  all 
kinds,  especially  those  on  mathematics,  were  eagerly  sought  and 
quickly  mastered.  Study  resulted  in  research  and  then  came  re- 
sults, culminating  in  the  preparation  of  a  paper  on  "A  New  Demon- 
stration of  the  Binomial  Theorem"  which  he  sent  to  Secretary 
Henry,  asking  if  he  deemed  it  worthy  of  publication.  In  replying 
Professor  Henry  pointed  out  its  "lack  of  completeness  and  rigor" 
although  one  part  of  the  work  "was  praised  for  its  elegance." 
Newcomb  says  of  Henry's  letter  that  "while  not  so  favorable  as 
I  might  have  expected,  it  was  sufficiently  so  to  encourage  me  in 
persevering." 

A  change  of  schools  in  1856,  brought  him  within  an  easy  ride 


368          LEADING  AMERICAN  MEN  OF  SCIENCE 

on  horseback  to  the  city  of  Washington  where  soon  "the  Smith- 
sonian Library  was  one  of  the  greatest  attractions"  and  from  which 
he  began  to  borrow  the  works  of  the  great  masters.  There  for 
the  first  time  he  saw  the  four  volumes  of  the  Mecanique  Celeste 
by  Laplace,  "the  greatest  treasure  that  my  imagination  had  ever 
pictured."  And  then  he  called  on  the  Secretary  and  told  him  of  his 
ambitions.  He  says  of  this  interview:  "When  I  found  Professor 
Henry  he  received  me  with  characteristic  urbanity,  told  me  some- 
thing of  his  own  studies,  and  suggested  that  I  might  find  something 
to  do  in  the  Coast  Survey,  but  took  no  further  steps  at  that  time." 

On  leaving  the  Smithsonian  he  made  his  way  to  the  office  of 
the  Coast  Survey  and  there  asked  if  a  knowledge  of  physical 
astronomy  was  necessary  to  a  position  in  that  office.  Other  visits 
to  Professor  Henry  followed,  and  at  one  of  these  he  received  a 
letter  to  Julius  E.  Hilgard,  then  assistant  in  charge  of  the  Coast 
Survey  office.  He  promptly  availed  himself  of  this  opportunity 
and  of  his  reception  Newcomb  wrote:  "I  found  from  my  first 
interview  with  him  that  the  denizens  of  the  world  of  light  were  up 
to  the  most  sanguine  conceptions  I  ever  could  have  formed." 

Towards  the  close  of  the  year  he  received  a  note  from  Mr.  Hil- 
gard saying  that  "he  had  been  talking  about  me  to  Professor  Win- 
lock,  superintendent  of  the  Nautical  Almanac,  and  that  I  might 
possibly  get  employment  on  that  work."  This  possibility  was 
not  one  that  could  be  safely  disregarded,  and  on  the  last  day  of 
December,  1856,  he  started  for  Cambridge  where  the  office  of  the 
Nautical  Almanac  then  was.  At  that  time  there  was  no  vacancy 
on  the  staff  but  he  had  not  long  to  wait,  for  he  writes: 

"I  date  my  birth  into  the  world  of  sweetness  and  light  on  one 
frosty  morning  in  January,  1857,  when  I  took  my  seat  between  two 
well-known  mathematicians,  before  a  blazing  fire  in  the  office  of 
the  Nautical  Almanac  at  Cambridge,  Mass.  I  had  come  on  from 
Washington,  armed  with  letters  from  Professor  Henry  and  Mr. 
Hilgard,  to  seek  a  trial  as  an  astronomical  computer.  The  men 
beside  me  were  Professor  Joseph  Winlock,  the  superintendent, 
and  Mr.  John  D.  Runkle,  the  senior  assistant  in  the  office." 

From   1857   to   1861,  Newcomb  remained  in   Cambridge  as 


SIMON  NEWCOMB  369 

computer  in  the  office  of  the  Nautical  Almanac.  It  may  be  said 
that  this  office  was  established  near  Harvard  University  so  as  to 
be  able  to  profit  by  the  technical  knowledge  of  experts,  especially 
that  of  Prof.  Benjamin  Peirce,  then  generally  accepted  as  the 
leading  mathematician  of  America.  The  office  remained  in  Cam- 
bridge until  1866  when  it  was  removed  to  Washington.  New- 
comb's  idea  of  the  work  may  be  understood  best  perhaps  by  his 
own  presentation  of  the  subject.  He  says: 

"Supply  any  man  with  the  fundamental  data  of  astronomy,  the 
times  at  which  stars  and  planets  cross  the  meridian  of  a  place,  and 
other  matters  of  this  kind.  He  is  informed  that  each  of  these 
bodies  whose  observations  he  is  to  use  is  attracted  by  all  the  others 
with  a  force  which  varies  as  the  inverse  square  of  their  distance 
apart.  From  these  data  he  is  to  weigh  the  bodies,  predict  their 
motion  in  all  future  time,  compute  their  orbits,  determine  what 
changes  of  form  and  position  these  orbits  will  undergo  through 
thousands  of  ages,  and  make  maps  showing  exactly  over  what 
cities  and  towns  on  the  surface  of  the  earth  an  eclipse  of  the  sun 
will  pass  fifty  years  hence,  or  over  what  regions  it  did  pass  thou- 
sands of  years  ago.  A  more  hopeless  problem  than  this  could  not 
be  presented  to  the  ordinary  human  intellect.  The  men  who  have 
done  it  are  therefore  in  intellect  the  select  few  of  the  human  race. 
The  astronomical  ephemeris  is  the  last  practical  outcome  of  their 
productive  genius." 

Newcomb,  gifted  with  that  appreciation  of  opportunities  that 
indicates  the  man  of  genius,  was  quick  to  realize  the  advantages 
of  a  closer  relation  to  the  University  in  Cambridge  and  therefore 
enrolled  himself  as  a  student  of  mathematics  in  the  Lawrence 
Scientific  School  where  he  pursued  studies  in  that  and  kindred 
branches  of  learning  under  the  eminent  Benjamin  Peirce.  He 
received  the  degree  of  Bachelor  of  Science  in  1858,  and  thereafter 
for  three  years  was  continued  on  the  rolls  of  the  University  as  a 
resident  graduate. 

The  eclipse  of  the  sun  that  occurred  in  1860  was  total  in  certain 
parts  of  British  America,  and  it  had  fallen  to  Newcomb  to  com- 
pute the  path  of  the  shadow  and  the  times  of  crossing  certain 
points  in  it  for  the  records  of  the  office  of  the  Nautical  Almanac. 
It  was  therefore  but  natural  that  he  should  be  selected  to  accom- 


370          LEADING  AMERICAN  MEN  OF  SCIENCE 

pany  the  party  sent  to  Saskatchewan  by  the  Almanac  office  and 
in  his  Reminiscences  he  described  with  much  interest  the  trip  to 
the  then  far-away  northwest.  The  expedition  failed  of  success  for 
"the  weather  was  hopeless.  We  saw  the  darkness  of  the  eclipse 
and  nothing  more."  He  consoled  himself,  however,  with  the  fol- 
lowing thought: 

"It  was  much  easier  to  go  back  and  tell  of  the  clouds  than  it 
would  have  been  to  say  that  the  telescope  got  disarranged  at  the 
critical  moment  so  that  the  observations  failed." 

In  1 86 1  he  learned  of  a  vacancy  in  the  select  corps  of  professors 
of  mathematics  in  the  U.  S.  Navy,  and  in  August,  1861,  he  made 
formal  application  for  an  appointment  to  the  Hon.  Gideon  Welles, 
then  Secretary  of  the  Navy.  His  letter  was  brief  and  concluded 
with: 

"I  would  respectfully  refer  you  to  Commander  Charles  Henry 
Davis,  U.  S.  N.,  Professor  Benjamin  Peirce,  of  Harvard  University, 
Dr.  Benjamin  A.  Gould,  of  Cambridge,  and  Professor  Joseph 
Henry,  Secretary  of  the  Smithsonian  Institution,  for  any  informa- 
tion respecting  me  which  will  enable  you  to  judge  of  the  propriety 
of  my  appointment." 

Great  was  his  satisfaction  when  a  month  later  he  found  in  the 
post-office  "a  very  large  official  envelope  containing  my  commis- 
sion duly  signed  by  Abraham  Lincoln,  President  of  the  United 
States."  He  promptly  reported  to  Washington  where  he  was  sent 
to  the  Naval  Observatory  and  was  assigned  to  work  on  the  transit 
instrument.  With  this  appointment  his  greater  life-work  began, 
in  the  prosecution  of  which  he  continued  until  within  a  very  few 
days  of  the  end  of  his  life. 

It  is  a  far  cry  from  that  long-ago  Naval  Observatory  with  its 
primitive  facilities  to  the  now  excellent  equipment  and  attractive 
building  on  the  observatory  grounds  on  the  hills  northwest  of 
Washington.  Newcomb  has  described  the  work  as  follows: 

"The  custom  was  that  one  of  us  should  come  on  every  clear 
evening,  make  observations  as  long  as  he  chose,  and  then  go  home. 
The  transit  instrument  was  at  one  end  of  the  building  and  the 
mural  circle,  in  charge  of  Professor  Hubbard,  at  the  other.  He 
was  weak  in  health,  and  unable  to  do  much  continuous  work  of 


SIMON  NEWCOMB  371 

any  kind,  especially  the  hard  work  of  observing.  He  and  I 
arranged  to  observe  on  the  same  nights;  but  I  soon  found  that  there 
was  no  concerted  plan  between  the  two  sets  of  observers.  The 
instruments  were  old-fashioned  ones,  of  which  mine  could  deter- 
mine only  the  right  ascension  of  a  star  and  his  only  its  declination ; 
hence  to  completely  determine  the  position  of  a  celestial  body, 
observations  must  be  made  on  the  same  object  with  both  instru- 
ments. But  I  soon  found  that  there  was  no  concert  of  action  of 
this  kind.  Hubbard,  on  the  mural  circle,  had  his  plan  of  work; 
Yarnell  and  myself,  on  the  transit,  had  ours.  When  either  Hub- 
bard  or  myself  got  tired,  we  could  'vote  it  cloudy'  and  go  out  for 
a  plate  of  oysters  at  a  neighboring  restaurant." 

He  soon  found  that  "no  system  of  work  of  the  first  order  of 
importance  could  be  initiated  until  the  instrumental  equipment 
was  greatly  improved."  The  clocks,  perfection  in  which  is  almost 
at  the  bottom  of  good  work,  were  quite  unfit  for  use;  the  other 
instruments  were  antiquated  and  defective  in  many  particulars. 
Slowly,  however,  the  pressing  needs  were  supplied  and  new  instru- 
ments, notably  a  great  transit  circle,  were  obtained  through  the 
indefatigable  zeal  of  James  M.  Gilliss,  who  was  in  charge  of  the 
observatory.  Meanwhile  the  task  of  editing,  explaining,  and  pre- 
paring for  the  press  the  new  series  of  observations  made  by  himself 
and  his  colleague  with  the  old  transit  instrument,  devolved  on  him. 

In  1863,  in  consequence  of  the  death  of  Prof.  J.  S.  Hubbard  of 
the  professorial  corps,  Newcomb  was  given  charge  of  the  mural 
circle.  Of  this  new  undertaking  he  says:  "  I  soon  became  conscious 
of  the  fact,  which  no  one  had  previously  taken  much  account  of, 
that  upon  the  plan  of  each  man  reducing  his  own  observations, 
not  only  was  there  an  entire  lack  of  homogeneity  in  the  work,  but 
the  more  work  one  did  at  night  the  more  he  had  to  do  by  day." 
That  he  possessed  the  confidence  of  his  superior  is  evident,  for  on 
presenting  the  case  to  Superintendent  Gilliss  that  official  quickly 
appreciated  the  fact  that  work  done  with  the  instruments  should 
be  regarded  as  that  of  the  observatory,  and  reduced  on  a  uniform 
plan,  instead  of  being  considered  as  the  property  of  the  individual 
who  happened  to  make  it.  Newcomb  adds:  "Thus  was  intro- 
duced the  first  step  toward  a  proper  official  system." 


372          LEADING  AMERICAN  MEN  OF  SCIENCE 

The  new  transit  circle  arrived  in  October,  1865,  and  to  his  great 
delight,  Newcomb  was  also  given  charge  of  it.  Then  it  was 
that  he  began  the  work  of  determining  the  error  in  the  right  ascen- 
sion of  stars  which  he  believed  had  crept  into  the  modern  observa- 
tions made  in  Greenwich,  Paris,  and  Washington  and  which 
prevented  stars  that  were  on  opposite  quarters  of  the  heavens  from 
agreeing.  For  more  than  three  years  this  undertaking  occupied 
his  close  attention,  and  in  1869  he  found  after  working  up  his 
observations  that  the  error  he  had  suspected  in  the  adopted  posi- 
tions of  the  stars  was  real.  This  investigation  was  conspicuously 
valuable  in  developing  the  fact  that  very  difficult  mathematical 
investigations  were  needed  to  unravel  one  of  the  greatest  mysteries 
of  astronomy,  that  of  the  moon's  motion.  Before,  however,  passing 
to  the  consideration  of  his  scientific  work  more  in  detail  it  should 
be  mentioned  that  he  continued  at  the  observatory  until  1877, 
when  he  became  senior  professor  of  mathematics  in  the  U.  S. 
Navy  with  the  relative  rank  of  captain. 

The  year  1877  was  perhaps  the  most  important  one  in  New- 
comb's  life.  With  all  the  strength  of  his  powerful  intellect,  with 
all  the  accumulated  experience  that  constitutes  wisdom,  with  the 
prosperity  that  comes  with  success,  and  with  an  appointment 
that  placed  him  at  the  head  of  a  great  scientific  bureau  he  was 
indeed  at  the  very  zenith  of  his  career.  On  September  15,  1877, 
he  was  assigned  to  the  charge  of  the  Nautical  Almanac  office, 
and  of  this  appointment  he  says:  "the  change  was  one  of  the  hap- 
piest in  my  life."  He  adds: 

"I  was  now  in  a  position  of  recognized  responsibility,  where  my 
recommendations  met  with  respect  due  to  that  responsibility, 
where  I  could  make  plans  with  the  assurance  of  being  able  to 
carry  them  out,  and  where  the  countless  annoyances  of  being 
looked  upon  as  an  important  factor  in  work  where  there  was  no 
chance  of  my  being  such  would  no  longer  exist.  Practically  I  had 
complete  control  of  the  work  of  the  office,  and  was  thus,  meta- 
phorically speaking,  able  to  work  with  untied  hands." 

He  found  the  office  in  a  rather  dilapidated  old  dwelling-house, 
not  very  far  away  from  the  observatory,  in  one  of  those  doubtful 


SIMON  NEWCOMB  373 

regions  on  the  border  line  between  a  slum  and  the  lowest  order 
of  respectability.  All  of  the  computers  did  their  work  at  their 
homes.  He  promptly  hired  an  office  in  the  top  of  the  Corcoran 
Building,  then  just  completed,  and  there  he  gathered  around  him 
his  various  assistants.  He  began  his  work  with  a  careful  examina- 
tion of  the  relation  of  prices  to  work,  making  an  estimate  of  the 
time  probably  necessary  to  do  each  job.  On  the  staff  were  several 
able  and  eminent  professors  at  various  universities  and  schools, 
who  were  being  paid  at  high  professional  prices.  Soon  he  found 
it  possible  to  concentrate  all  the  work  in  Washington,  thereby 
effecting  a  reduction  in  the  expenses  of  the  office.  "  These  econo- 
mies went  on  increasing  year  by  year,  and  every  dollar  that  was 
saved  went  into  the  work  of  making  the  tables  necessary  for  the 
future  use  of  the  Ephemeris" 

The  program  of  work  which  he  laid  out  included  a  discussion 
of  all  the  observations  of  value  on  the  positions  of  the  sun,  moon, 
and  planets,  and  incidentally  on  the  bright  fixed  stars  made  at  the 
leading  observatories  of  the  world  from  the  year  1750  on,  and  this 
work  is  described  more  in  detail  later  in  this  sketch.  Another 
valuable  undertaking  was  the  compilation  of  the  formulae  for  the 
perturbation  of  the  various  planets  by  each  other. 

For  twenty  years  he  continued  in  charge  of  this  office,  and  as 
each  passing  year  went  on  its  way  with  its  record  of  results  it 
carried  with  it  the  gratifying  assurances  that  the  work  under  his 
supervision  was  more  and  more  surely  reaching  its  successful 
culmination.  When  the  day  for  his  actual  retirement  came  he 
left  the  office  with  the  satisfaction  of  knowing  that  his  work  had 
gained  the  appreciation  of  his  colleagues  at  home  and  abroad,  for 
no  honors  such  as  were  conferred  upon  him  had  ever  come  to  an 
American  scientist. 

The  plaudit  "well  done,  good  and  faithful  servant"  was  surely 
his.  Director  Maurice  Loewy  who  was  long  in  charge  of  the 
observatory  in  Paris  wrote: 

"His  activity  has  embraced  the  most  diverse  branches  of 
astronomy.  Not  only  has  he  given  a  great  scope  to  the  intellectual 
movement  of  this  country,  but  he  has  also  contributed  in  a  very 


374          LEADING  AMERICAN  MEN  OF  SCIENCE 

successful  manner  to  elevate  the  level  of  the  civilization  of  our  age, 
enriching  the  domain  of  science  with  beautiful  and  durable  con- 
quests." 

While  a  young  man  in  Cambridge,  Newcomb  determined  to 
devote  his  life  to  the  prosecution  of  exact  astronomy,  and  the  first 
problem  which  he  took  up  was  that  of  the  zone  of  those  minor 
planets,  called  asteroids,  which  revolve  between  the  orbits  of 
Mars  and  Jupiter.  This  investigation,  published  in  1860,  under 
the  title  On  the  Secular  Variations  and  Mutual  Relations  of  the 
Orbits  of  the  Asteroids  showed  that  the  orbits  of  these  bodies  "had 
never  passed  through  any  common  point  of  intersection"  and 
hence  were  not  fragments  of  a  larger  body  that  had  met  with  some 
catastrophe  as  had  been  generally  believed.  "The  whole  trend 
of  thought  and  research  since  that  time,"  says  Newcomb,  "has 
been  towards  the  conclusion  that  no  such  cataclysm  as  that  looked 
for  ever  occurred,  and  that  the  group  of  smaller  planets  had  been 
composed  of  separate  bodies  since  the  solar  system  came  into 
existence." 

His  own  statement  of  "the  great  problem  of  exact  astronomy" 
to  which  he  gave  so  much  of  his  life  and  thought  is  as  follows: 

"  It  is  well  known  that  we  shall  at  least  come  very  near  the  truth 
when  we  say  that  the  planets  revolve  around  the  sun,  and  the  satel- 
lites around  their  primaries  according  to  the  law  of  gravitation. 
We  may  regard  all  these  bodies  as  projected  into  space,  and  thus 
moving  according  to  laws  similar  to  that  which  governs  the  motion 
of  a  stone  thrown  from  the  hand.  If  two  bodies  alone  were  con- 
cerned, say  the  sun  and  a  planet,  the  orbit  of  the  lesser  around  the 
greater  would  be  an  ellipse,  which  would  never  change  its  form, 
size,  or  position.  That  the  orbits  of  the  planets  and  asteroids  do 
change,  and  that  they  are  not  exact  ellipses,  is  due  to  their  attrac- 
tion upon  each  other.  The  question  is,  do  these  mutual  attrac- 
tions completely  explain  all  the  motions  down  to  the  last  degree  of 
refinement  ?  Does  any  world  move  otherwise  than  as  it  is  attracted 
by  other  worlds? 

"Two  different  lines  of  research  must  be  brought  to  bear  on  the 
question  thus  presented.  We  must  first  know  by  the  most  exact 
land  refined  observations  that  the  astronomer  can  make  exactly 
how  a  heavenly  body  does  move.  Its  position,  or,  as  we  cannot 


SIMON  NEWCOMB  375 

directly  measure  distance,  its  direction  from  us,  must  be  deter- 
mined as  precisely  as  possible  from  time  to  time.  Its  course  has 
been  mapped  out  for  it  in  advance  by  tables  which  are  published 
in  the  Astronomical  Ephemeris,  and  we  may  express  its  position  by 
its  deviation  from  these  tables.  Then  comes  in  the  mathematical 
problem  how  it  ought  to  move  under  the  attraction  of  all  other 
heavenly  bodies  that  can  influence  its  motion.  The  results  must 
then  be  compared,  in  order  to  see  to  what  conclusion  we  may  be 
led." 

It  is  not  easy  to  understand  the  obstacles  that  had  to  be  over- 
come in  a  series  of  investigations  in  which  in  the  solution  of  so 
complex  a  problem  as  that  Newcomb  undertook.  The  general 
treatment  is  indicated  by  Bostwick  *  in  the  following  statement: 

"If  the  universe  consisted  of  but  two  bodies — say,  the  sun  and 
a  planet — the  motion  would  be  simplicity  itself;  the  planet  would 
describe  an  exact  ellipse  about  the  sun,  and  this  orbit  would  never 
change  in  form,  size,  or  position.  With  the  addition  of  only  one 
more  body,  the  problem  at  once  becomes  so  much  more  difficult 
as  to  be  practically  insoluble;  indeed,  the  'problem  of  the  three 
bodies'  has  been  attacked  by  astronomers  for  years  without  the 
discovery  of  any  general  formula  to  express  the  resulting  motions. 
For  the  actually  existing  system  of  many  planets  with  their  satel- 
lites and  countless  asteroids,  only  an  approximation  is  possible. 
The  actual  motions  as  observed  and  measured  from  year  to  year 
are  most  complex.  Can  these  be  completely  accounted  for  by  the 
mutual  attractions  of  the  bodies,  according  to  the  law  of  gravita- 
tion ?  Its  two  elements  are,  of  course,  the  mapping  out  of  the  lines 
in  which  the  bodies  concerned  actually  do  move  and  the  calcula- 
tions of  the  orbits  in  which  they  ought  to  move,  if  the  accepted  laws 
of  planetary  motion  are  true.  The  first  involves  the  study  of 
thousands  of  observations  made  during  long  years  by  different  men 
in  far  distant  lands,  the  discussion  of  their  probable  errors,  and 
their  reduction  to  a  common  standard.  The  latter  requires  the 
use  of  the  most  refined  methods  of  mathematical  analysis;  it  is  as 
Newcomb  says,  'of  a  complexity  beyond  the  powers  of  ordinary 
conception.' " 

The  practical  impossibility  of  ever  completing  this  remarkable 
series  of  studies  is  almost  obvious,  for  in  magnitude  that  task  is 

1  A.  E.  Bostwick,  American  Review  of  Reviews,  August,  1909. 


376          LEADING  AMERICAN  MEN  OF  SCIENCE 

one  probably  not  exceeded  by  any  ever  before  attempted  by  an 
astronomer,  and  yet  Newcomb  persisted,  although  in  many  cases 
he  was  obliged  to  confine  himself  to  a  correction  of  the  reductions 
already  made  and  published.  The  number  of  meridian  observa- 
tions on  the  sun,  Mercury,  Venus,  and  Mars  alone  numbered 
62,030,  and  these  were  contributed  by  the  observatories  at  Green- 
wich, Paris,  Konigsberg,  Pulkowa,  Cape  of  Good  Hope,  and 
elsewhere.  Says  Newcomb:  "The  job  was  one  with  which  I  do 
not  think  any  astronomical  one  ever  attempted  by  a  single  person 
could  compare  in  extent." 

It  was  this  elaborate  task  of  "bringing  this  great  problem  of  the 
solar  system  well-nigh  to  completeness  of  solution"  that  consti- 
tuted Newcomb's  life-work  and  in  connection  with  which  his 
name  will  go  down  in  history.  It  involved  "an  almost  complete 
reconstruction  of  the  theories  of  the  motions  of  the  bodies  of  the 
solar  system"  and  "at  its  foundation  the  complete  revision  of  the 
so-called  constants  of  astronomy."  Such  is  the  testimony  of  his 
successor  in  the  office  of  the  Nautical  Almanac,  who  further  adds: 

"The  distance  of  the  earth  from  the  sun;  the  displacement  of  the 
earth  in  its  orbit  by  the  attraction  of  the  moon ;  the  displacement  of 
the  stars  due  to  the  motion  of  the  earth  combined  with  the  motion 
of  light,  which  involves  the  velocity  of  light  and  space;  the  yearly 
precession  of  the  equinoxes;  the  obliquity  of  the  ecliptic;  the 
dimensions  and  the  masses  of  the  planets;  all  had  to  be  worked 
into  a  homogeneous  system  to  be  used  as  a  basis  for  the  tables  of 
the  sun  and  planets." 

The  moon  early  attracted  his  attention  and  it  held  him  until 
the  end.  Almost  his  very  first  observations  at  the  Naval  Observa- 
tory in  Washington  "showed  that  the  moon  seemed  to  be  fall- 
ing a  little  behind  her  predicted  motion."  He  soon  found  that 
other  astronomers  had  found  similar  "inequalities"  and  therefore 
he  determined  to  ascertain  the  cause  of  this  phenomenon.  He 
studied  the  records  of  other  astronomers  and  after  satisfying  him- 
self that  the  error  had  occurred  prior  to  1750,  he  searched  the  old 
records  of  Europe  and  in  Paris,  and  in  Pulkowa  found  evidence 
that  traced  the  error  back  to  before  the  year  1675,  which  in  the 


SIMON  NEWCOMB  377 

elapsed  time  had  with  slight  accretions  amounted  to  sufficient  to 
vitiate  in  a  marked  degree  the  records  of  astronomy.  The  compila- 
tion necessary  to  correct  this  error  required  years  to  perform,  and 
although  the  corrections  were  promptly  applied  to  work  in  prog- 
ress it  was  not  until  1878  that  he  was  able  to  publish  his  Reduc- 
tions and  Discussion  of  the  Moon  before  1750. 

Later  when  release  came  to  him  from  official  duties  he  returned 
to  that  subject  and  with  the  aid  of  a  grant  from  the  Carnegie 
Institution  given  him  in  1903  and  later,  he  devoted  his  leisure  to  a 
further  investigation  of  this  subject,  culminating  in  a  memoir  on 
The  Motion  of  the  Moon,  the  final  words  of  which  were  dictated 
by  him  after  he  had  been  stricken  with  the  fatal  illness  that 
stretched  him  upon  a  bed  of  suffering  and  from  which  he  never 
arose. 

The  sun  and  the  moon  and  the  planets  yielded  their  secrets  to 
the  call  of  his  mighty  intellect,  and  science  has  profited  to  the 
benefit  of  humanity  in  consequence  of  the  life  of  Simon  Newcomb. 

As  Newcomb  grew  in  reputation  his  advice  was  sought  for 
many  purposes,  and  his  knowledge  taken  advantage  of  not  only 
by  our  government  but  also  by  those  abroad.  Of  these  experi- 
ences, therefore,  brief  mention  must  be  made. 

In  1869  he  was  one  of  the  party  sent  to  Des  Moines,  Iowa,  to 
observe  the  solar  eclipse  that  passed  across  the  United  States  in 
that  year.  He  prepared  the  detailed  set  of  instructions  issued  by 
the  Naval  Observatory  to  observers  in  towns  at  each  edge  of  the 
shadow-path  to  note  the  short  duration  of  totality.  He  was  also 
a  member  of  the  party  sent  to  Gibraltar  to  observe  the  eclipse  that 
occurred  in  December,  1870.  The  day  of  the  eclipse  was  cloudy 
so  that  the  observations  made  were  not  of  very  great  value.  He 
made  the  trip  from  England  to  Gibraltar  as  the  guest  of  the  Eng- 
lish official  party,  and  among  other  guests  was  Prof.  John  Tyndall. 

Of  this  period  he  wrote:  "My  continued  presence  on  the  observ- 
atory staff  led  to  my  taking  part  in  two  of  the  great  movements 
of  the  next  ten  years,  the  construction  and  inauguration  of  the 
great  telescope  and  the  observations  of  the  transit  of  Venus." 

Concerning  the  first  of  these  events  Newcomb  has  told  pleas- 


378          LEADING  AMERICAN  MEN  OF  SCIENCE 

antly  in  his  Reminiscences  of  its  origin.  At  a  dinner  party 
several  Senators  were  present  the  mortifying  statement  was  made 
that  there  was  no  large  telescope  in  Washington.  This  fact  so 
interested  Senator  Hamlin  of  Maine  that  provision  was  made 
almost  immediately  by  Congress  for  the  construction  of  a  suitable 
instrument.  The  necessary  money  was  appropriated  and  to 
Newcomb  was  assigned  the  duty  of  negotiating  the  contracts,  and 
later  of  supervising  the  construction  of  the  object-glass.  The 
great  26-inch  lens  was  made  by  Alvan  Clark  and  Sons,  and  on 
November  10,  1873,  tne  first  observations  made  with  it, — those 
on  the  satellites  of  Neptune, — were  begun.  It  is  interesting  to 
add  that  the  famous  discovery  of  the  satellites  of  Mars  by  Asaph 
Hall  in  August,  1877,  was  made  with  this  instrument.  According 
to  Newcomb:  "The  success  of  the  Washington  telescope  excited 
such  interest  the  world  over  as  to  give  a  new  impetus  to  the  con- 
struction of  such  instruments."  Pleased  with  their  success  the 
Clarks  were  ready  to  undertake  much  larger  instruments,  and  it 
may  be  said  that  a  30-inch  telescope  for  the  Pulkowa  Observa- 
tory in  Russia,  the  36-inch  telescope  of  the  Lick  Observatory  in 
California,  and,  finally,  the  40-inch  of  the  Yerkes  Observatory 
in  Williams  Bay,  Wisconsin,  were  the  outcome  of  the  movement. 

A  description  of  the  second  event  will  occupy  but  a  few  words. 
In  1871  Newcomb  was  appointed  secretary  of  the  commission 
that  was  created  by  Congress  for  the  purpose  of  observing  the 
transit  of  Venus  on  December  9,  1874,  and  under  whose  direction 
the  expeditions  sent  by  the  United  States  government  were  organ- 
ized. He  also  had  much  to  do  with  equipping  the  expeditions 
that  were  sent  to  observe  the  transit  in  1882,  and  he  took  charge 
of  the  party  that  went  to  Cape  of  Good  Hope.  His  comment  on 
the  occasion  is  as  follows:  "The  sky  on  the  day  of  the  transit  was 
simply  perfect.  Notwithstanding  the  intensity  of  the  sun's  rays, 
the  atmosphere  was  so  steady  that  I  have  never  seen  the  sun  to 
better  advantage.  So  all  our  observations  were  successful." 

Early  in  1874,  the  announcement  was  made  that  James  Lick, 
of  San  Francisco,  had  transferred  his  fortune  to  a  board  of  trus- 
tees in  order  to  carry  out  certain  public  benefactions,  one  of  which 


SIMON  NEWCOMB  379 

was  the  procuring  of  the  greatest  and  most  powerful  telescope 
that  had  ever  been  made.  Newcomb  was  soon  consulted  in  regard 
to  this  interesting  proposition,  and  in  December,  1874,  he  was 
invited  to  visit  the  European  workshops  as  an  agent  of  the  Lick 
trustees.  This  duty  he  promptly  accepted,  and  after  failure  to 
negotiate  satisfactory  arrangements  abroad,  he  finally  advised 
that  the  making  of  the  great  36-inch  lens  be  given  to  Clark  and 
Sons.  From  its  inception,  therefore,  until  its  inauguration, 
Newcomb  was  the  principal  scientific  adviser  of  the  trustees  of 
the  Lick  Observatory,  and  recommended  for  their  consideration, 
Edward  S.  Holden,  who  was  chosen  their  first  director. 

Of  almost  identical  nature  was  his  relation  to  the  construction 
of  the  30-inch  object-glass  for  the  Pulkowa  telescope.  In  1878, 
Otto  Struve,  the  director  of  that  observatory,  began  correspondence 
with  Newcomb  concerning  the  building  of  a  large  refracting  teles- 
cope. Struve  came  to  the  United  States  on  Newcomb's  suggestion 
in  1879,  and  together  they  visited  the  workshops  of  the  Clarks  in 
Cambridge.  After  due  consideration  Struve  decided  to  place  the 
contract  for  making  the  object-glass  with  the  American  firm,  and 
thereafter,  until  its  completion,  Newcomb  was  frequently  consulted 
in  regard  to  it.  In  1887,  in  appreciation  of  this  work,  the  Emperor 
of  Russia  ordered  Newcomb's  portrait  to  be  painted  and  placed 
in  the  Government  gallery  of  famous  astronomers  in  Pulkowa. 
Two  years  later  Newcomb  received  a  rare  vase  of  jasper  on  a 
pedestal  of  black  marble,  six  and  a  half  feet  high,  which  "in  recog- 
nition of  these  deserts,  His  Majesty,  the  Emperor,  graciously 
sends  as  a  present  for  you  from  the  observatory  of  Pulkowa." 

In  1884  he  was  invited  to  accept  the  professorship  of  mathe- 
matics and  astronomy  in  the  Johns  Hopkins  University,  which 
place  he  held  until  1893,  when  he  resigned,  but  again  returned  to 
that  chair  in  1898,  and  two  years  later  was  made  emeritus.  In 
reference  to  his  work  it  has  been  said  that  "no  American  would 
have  been  more  worthy  of  succeeding  Sylvester.  As  an  astronomer 
his  name  has  long  shone  with  a  lustre  which  fills  with  pride  every 
American  breast."  Johns  Hopkins  was  keenly  appreciative  of 
his  services  to  that  university,  and  in  1901  Newcomb  was  one  of 


380         LEADING  AMERICAN  MEN  OF  SCIENCE 

the  two  to  receive  the  first  award  of  the  Sylvester  prize.  This  prize 
is  a  handsome  bronze  medallion  of  the  late  Professor  Sylvester 
framed  in  oak.  In  making  the  award  President  Oilman  said: 
"The  second  copy  of  this  tablet  is  now  offered  to  Professor  Simon 
Newcomb,  a  distinguished  astronomer,  who  has  been  a  friend  of 
the  University  from  its  inception,  and  who  guided  the  mathemati- 
cal department  for  many  years." 

When  it  was  decided  to  hold  a  World's  Fair  in  St.  Louis  in 
commemoration  of  the  purchase  of  Louisiana,  an  International 
Congress  of  Arts  and  Science  was  advocated  by  a  distinguished 
group  of  educators  and  scientists,  who  on  the  acceptance  of  their 
plan  at  once  recommended  "that  Simon  Newcomb  be  named  for 
President."  In  his  history  of  the  congress,  Doctor  Rogers  says: 
"The  choice  for  president  of  the  Congress  fell  without  debate  to 
the  dean  of  American  scientific  circles,  whose  eminent  services 
to  the  government  of  the  United  States  and  whose  recognized 
position  in  foreign  and  domestic  scientific  circles  made  him  par- 
ticularly fitted  to  preside  over  such  an  international  gathering  of 
the  leading  scientists  of  the  world." 

Of  his  remarkable  success  in  securing  the  presence  of  the  great- 
est men  in  the  world  in  every  domain  of  science  there  is  abundant 
testimony.  Nor  is  there  need  to  discuss  the  work  of  the  congress 
here,  for  the  eight  octavo  volumes  published  after  the  event  tell 
the  story  with  exactness.  Space,  however,  may  be  given  to  the 
opening  words  with  which  on  the  theme  of  "The  Evolution  of 
the  Scientific  Investigator,"  Newcomb  at  the  very  culmination 
of  his  splendid  career  opened  the  congress  in  the  presence  of  per- 
haps the  most  distinguished  audience  ever  gathered  in  the  new 
world, — an  audience  which  indeed  testified  by  their  presence  to 
the  homage  which  they  proudly  rendered  to  him  whom  they  recog- 
nized as  the  world's  first  scientist.  He  said: 

"As  we  look  at  the  assemblage  gathered  in  this  hall,  com- 
prising so  many  names  of  widest  renown  in  every  branch  of  learn- 
ing,— we  might  almost  say  in  every  field  of  human  endeavor, — the 
first  inquiry  suggested  must  be  after  the  object  of  our  meeting. 
The  answer  is,  that  our  purpose  corresponds  to  the  eminence  of 


SIMON  NEWCOMB  381 

the  assemblage.  We  aim  at  nothing  less  than  a  survey  of  the 
realm  of  knowledge,  as  comprehensive  as  is  permitted  by  the  limi- 
tations of  time  and  space.  The  organizers  of  our  Congress  have 
honored  me  with  the  charge  of  presenting  such  preliminary  view 
of  its  field  as  may  make  clear  the  spirit  of  our  undertaking." 

It  must  be  remembered  always  that  Newcomb's  great  work  was 
on  the  mathematical  astronomy  of  the  solar  system,  involving  as 
it  did  the  preparation  of  the  most  exact  possible  tables  of  the  mo- 
tions of  all  the  planets.  These  researches  were  published  by 
the  Nautical  Almanac  Office  in  eight  quarto  volumes  entitled 
Astronomical  Papers  of  the  American  Ephemeris.  But  this 
was  by  no  manner  of  means  all;  for  a  volume  at  least  would 
be  necessary  to  merely  mention  his  other  very  many  addresses, 
memoirs,  and  papers.  The  titles  of  376  of  these  have  been  care- 
fully collected  by  Dr.  R.  C.  Archibald  and  were  published  in  1905. 
Concerning  these  Prof.  Arthur  Cayley,  formerly  president  of  the 
Royal  Astronomical  Society  of  Great  Britain,  has  said:  "Professor 
Newcomb's  writings  exhibit,  all  of  them,  a  combination  on  the 
one  hand  of  mathematical  skill  and  power,  and  on  the  other  of 
good  hard  work,  devoted  to  the  furtherance  of  astronomical 
science." 

During  the  years  of  his  active  connection  with  Johns  Hopkins 
University,  he  was  properly  editor-in-chief  of  the  American  Journal 
of  Mathematics,  and  during  the  rest  of  the  time — from  the  founda- 
tion of  the  journal  in  1878  to  1884,  and  subsequent  to  1900 — he 
was  an  associate  editor.  His  literary  activity  was  very  great  and 
but  few  important  works  of  reference  have  been  published  with- 
out articles  from  his  pen.  He  was  one  of  the  contributors  to  John- 
son's Cyclopedia,  and  became  the  "astronomical  mathematical 
editor"  of  that  work  for  its  edition  published  in  1900,  as  the 
Universal  Cyclopedia.  He  wrote  a  number  of  articles,  including 
that  on  Astronomy,  for  the  tenth  edition  of  the  Encyclopedia 
Britannica,  and  was  one  of  the  "associate  and  advising  editors"  of 
the  Encyclopedia  Americana,  and  he  was  an  associate  editor  of 
the  Dictionary  of  Psychology  and  Philosophy.  His  magazine 
articles  contributed  to  the  Atlantic,  Popular  Science  Monthly, 


382          LEADING  AMERICAN  MEN  OF  SCIENCE 

Harpers,  North  American  Review,  Forum,  and  other  similar 
journals  were  many  and  valuable. 

In  book  form  he  should  be  credited  with  the  following  works, 
many  of  which  have  passed  through  several  editions  and  at  least 
one,  his  Popular  Astronomy,  was  republished  in  England  and 
translated  into  the  German,  Russian,  and  Norwegian  languages. 
The  list  includes  Popular  Astronomy  (New  York,  1878);  School 
Astronomy,  with  Edward  S.  Holden  (1879) ;  Briefer  Course  (1883) ; 
Elements  of  Astronomy  (1900);  Stars;  A  Study  of  the  Universe, 
translated  into  Dutch,  Bohemian,  and  Japanese  (1901) ;  Astronomy 
for  Everybody  (1902);  Compendium  of  Spherical  Astronomy 
(1905)  and  Side  Lights  on  Astronomy  (1906);  also  a  series  of  text- 
books comprising  Algebra  (1881);  Geometry  (1881);  Trigonome- 
try and  Logarithms  (1882);  School  Algebra  (1882);  Analytic 
Geometry  (1884);  Essentials  of  Trigonometry  (1884);  and  Cal- 
culus (1887). 

Of  the  text-books  the  following  story  is  told  concerning  their 
origin:  "One  evening  Professor  Newcomb  found  his  daughter 
Anita,  now  Mrs.  McGee,  poring  over  an  algebra  which  he  thought 
too  abstruse  for  a  beginner.  'Put  it  aside,'  he  said,  'I  will  write 
you  something  to  study.'  He  began  at  once  and  wrote  a  lesson 
for  her,  and  after  this,  wrote  every  evening  her  lesson  for  the 
next  day.  A  complete  algebra  was  the  result.  This  was  finally 
published,  and  a  whole  series  of  mathematical  books  followed." 

Very  early  in  life  Professor  Newcomb  developed  an  interest  in 
political  economy  and  it  was  his  habit  to  refer  to  astronomy  as 
his  "profession"  and  to  political  economy  as  his  "recreation." 
A  wise  man  knows  the  value  of  diverting  his  thoughts  from  his 
"profession"  to  his  "recreation."  At  first  the  application  of 
mathematics  to  public  questions  seems  to  have  appealed  to  him 
most  and  he  wrote  on  finance.  Many  of  his  earlier  articles  were 
published  in  such  prominent  reviews  as  the  North  American  and 
the  old  International;  some  of  these  papers  were  anonymous. 
As  years  came  to  him,  however,  he  broadened  his  views  until 
he  became  an  accepted  authority  in  many  branches  of  political 
economy.  His  opinions  were  highly  valued  and  eagerly  sought 


SIMON  NEWCOMB  383 

for,  and  in  consequence  they  were  given  to  the  world  in  book 
form. 

Professor  Irving  Fisher  who  fills  so  acceptably  the  chair  of 
political  economy  in  Yale  University,  has  described  with  such 
skill  Newcomb's  contributions  to  political  economy  that  I  venture 
to  include  his  brief  analysis.  He  says: 

"It  is  true  that  Newcomb  sought  not  so  much  to  add  to  economic 
science  as  to  restate  what  was  already  known,  but  in  so  doing  he 
struck  out  in  many  new  paths.  Perhaps  his  chief  contribution 
was  the  distinction  between  a  'fund'  and  a  'flow'  —  ,  a  'fund* 
relating  to  a  point  of  time  and  a  'flow'  relating  to  a  period  of 
time.  This  distinction  he  applied  especially  to  the  societary  cir- 
culation which  he  expressed  in  one  equation  between  the  circula- 
tion of  money  and  the  reverse  flow  of  goods.  He  was  apparently 
the  first  to  state  this  equation  and  thereby  to  formulate  accurately 
the  so-called  'quantity  theory  of  money.'  He  also  applied  the 
distinction  between  a  'flow'  and  a  'fund'  to  expose  the  fallacy  of 
the  wage-fund.  The  same  distinction  many  of  us  have  found 
extremely  fruitful  in  the  analysis  of  capital  and  income.  Among 
other  problems  to  the  solution  of  which  Professor  Newcomb  con- 
tributed may  be  mentioned  the  problem  of  the  standard  of  deferred 
payments  and  the  perennial  problem  of  Labor  and  Capital.  In 
general,  Professor  Newcomb  was  an  advocate  of  laissez  faire,  but 
he  distinguished  sharply  between  the  government  policy  of  'letting 
alone'  and  that  of  'keeping  out.' 

"In  Methodology  Professor  Newcomb  maintained  that  Econom- 
ics was  a  science  and  should  be  treated  by  scientific  methods. 
One  of  the  most  stimulating  discussions  in  his  Elements  of  Political 
Economy  is  that  concerning  the  nature  of  scientific  method.  He 
points  out  that  a  scientific  law  merely  expresses  what  would  happen 
under  certain  hypothetical  conditions." 

Of  his  writings  on  this  subject  the  following  are  the  more  impor- 
tant: A  Critical  Examination  of  our  Financial  Policy  during  the 
Rebellion  (New  York,  1865);  The  A.  B.  C.  of  Finance  (1877); 
A  Plain  Man's  Talk  on  the  Labor  Question  (1886) ;  Principles  of 
Political  Economy  (1886) ;  and  The  Problem  of  Economic  Educa- 
tion (1893). 

As  further  evidence  of  his  remarkable  versatility  may  be  men- 
tioned his  stories:  The  Wreck  of  the  Columbia  (1896) ;  The  End  of 


384          LEADING  AMERICAN  MEN  OF  SCIENCE 

the  World  (1903),  which  was  translated  into  Japanese;  and  his 
novel  His  Wisdom,  the  Defender  (1900) ;  and  finally  The  Reminis- 
cences of  an  Astronomer  (1903). 

No  American  was  ever  more  conspicuously  honored  than  Simon 
Newcomb.  Decorations,  medals,  and  degrees  were  gladly  con- 
ferred on  him.  The  much  prized  red  ribbon  of  the  order  of  the 
Legion  of  Honor  in  the  grade  of  "officier"  was  given  him  by  the 
French  government  in  1896,  and  in  1907  he  was  advanced  to  the 
rank  of  "commandeur."  The  German  Emperor  made  him  a 
Knight  in  the  Prussian  order  of  Merit  for  Science  and  Art,  and 
on  his  last  visit  to  Europe,  Professor  Newcomb  was  received  at 
luncheon  by  Emperor  William.  In  1874  he  was  awarded  a  gold 
medal  by  the  Royal  Astronomical  Society  of  London,  and  in  1878 
the  great  Huyghens  gold  medal  was  given  to  him  by  the  Haarlem 
Society  of  Sciences  under  the  auspices  of  the  University  of  Ley  den. 
This  medal,  it  is  interesting  to  add,  is  awarded  biennially  to  the 
individual,  who  by  his  researches  and  discoveries  or  inventions 
during  the  previous  twenty  years,  has,  in  the  judgment  of  the 
Society  distinguished  himself  in  an  exceptional  manner  in  a  par- 
ticular branch  of  science.  Although  awarded  every  two  years  it 
is  distributed  among  the  various  sciences,  so  that  it  is  only  once  in 
twenty  years  that  it  is  given  to  an  astronomer.  In  1890  he  re- 
ceived the  Copley  medal  from  the  Royal  Society  of  London  for 
his  contributions  to  gravitational  astronomy.  This  award  is 
regarded  as  the  most  important  of  all  those  given  by  the  Royal 
Society  and  ranks  as  the  "blue  ribbon"  of  Science  in  England. 
The  first  American  recipient  of  this  medal  was  Benjamin  Franklin. 
Newcomb  was  the  first  to  receive  the  Bruce  gold  medal  awarded 
by  the  Astronomical  Society  of  the  Pacific.  It  was  conferred  on 
him  in  1898  "as  a  recognition  of  services  to  astronomy." 

The  appreciation  of  his  work  by  the  Emperor  of  Russia  in 
ordering  in  1887  that  his  portrait  be  added  to  the  gallery  in  Pul- 
kowa,  followed  in  1888  by  the  gift  of  a  jasper  vase,  as  well  as  his 
award  of  the  Sylvester  prize  of  the  Johns  Hopkins  University  in 
1901,  have  already  been  mentioned.  To  these  tokens  of  recogni- 
tion may  be  added  the  facts  that  in  1889  the  Imperial  University 


SIMON  NEWCOMB  385 

of  Tokio,  in  Japan,  officially  presented  him  with  two  bronze 
vases  of  exquisite  workmanship  and  design;  also  in  1895  he  re- 
ceived the  Astronomical  Journal  prize  of  $400  for  the  "most 
thorough  discussion  of  the  theory  of  the  rotation  of  the  earth,  with 
reference  to  the  recently  discovered  variation  of  latitude."  And 
finally  that  the  Imperial  Academy  of  Sciences  in  St.  Petersburg 
in  1897,  gave  him  the  Schubert  prize  of  900  roubles. 

Universities  gave  him  their  highest  degrees  and  he  held  the  fol- 
lowing honorary  doctorates:  George  Washington,  LL.D.,  1874; 
Yale,  LL.D.,  1875;  Leyden,  Nat.Ph.D.,  1875;  Harvard,  LL.D., 
1884;  Heidelberg,  Ph.D.,  1886;  Columbia,  LL.D.,  1887;  Edin- 
burgh, LL.D.,  1891;  Padua,  Phil.Nat.D.,  1892;  Dublin,  Sc.D., 
1892;  Princeton,  LL.D.,  1896;  Cambridge,  Sc.D.,  1896;  Glasgow, 
LL.D.,  1896;  Oxford,  D.C.L.,  1899;  Cracow,  LL.D.,  1900; 
Johns  Hopkins,  LL.D.,  1902;  Christiania,  Math.D.,  1902;  and 
Toronto,  LL.D.,  1904.  It  may  be  added  to  this  generous  list  of 
universities  with  which  he  was  affiliated  that  he  was  always  active 
in  all  matters  that  pertained  to  the  progress  of  his  own  Harvard, 
the  alumni  of  which  testified  to  their  appreciation  of  his  interest 
by  choosing  him  as  one  of  their  representatives  on  the  Board  of 
Overseers  of  that  university,  a  place  that  he  held  at  the  time  of 
his  death. 

In  1872  he  was  elected  an  associate  member  of  the  Royal 
Astronomical  Society  of  London,  and  in  1877  he  was  made  a  foreign 
member  of  the  Royal  Society  of  London;  holding  also  honorary 
fellowship  in  the  similar  societies  in  Edinburgh,  1881,  Dub- 
lin, 1882,  and  Sydney,  Australia,  1901.  He  held  correspond- 
ing, associate  or  honorary  membership  in  all  of  the  great  acade- 
mies of  science,  including  those  in  Sweden,  1875;  Bavaria, 
1876;  Gottingen,  1888;  Brussels,  1891;  Rome,  1895;  St.  Peters- 
burg, 1897;  Amsterdam,  1898;  Milan,  1899;  Vienna  and  Berlin, 
1904. 

Conspicuous  among  the  honors  which  tell  of  the  appreciation 
of  a  man  by  his  colleagues  was  the  recognition  received  in  1887 
by  Newcomb  in  his  election  as  one  of  the  eight  members  of  the 
council  of  the  Astronomische  Gesellschaft,  an  international  astro- 


386          LEADING  AMERICAN  MEN  OF  SCIENCE 

nomical  society  that  meets  once  in  two  years.  In  1874  he  was 
elected  a  corresponding  member  of  the  Institute  of  France  and 
on  June  17,  1895,  was  chosen  one  of  the  eight  foreign  associate 
members  of  the  Academy  of  Science  of  the  Institute  of  France,  in 
succession  to  the  illustrious  Helmholtz.  This  was  the  greatest 
honor  that  came  to  him;  for  indeed  there  is  none  higher,  and  since 
Franklin,  Newcomb  was  the  first  native  American  to  receive  this 
greatest  of  all  scientific  honors. 

In  the  United  States  his  services  to  science  likewise  received 
conspicuous  recognition.  In  1869  ne  was  elected  a  member  of  the 
National  Academy  of  Sciences  which  he  served  as  vice-president 
in  1883-89  and  as  foreign  secretary  in  1903-09.  He  was  elected 
to  the  American  Philosophical  Society  in  1878,  and  was  its  senior 
vice-president  at  the  time  of  his  death;  and  he  was  an  associate 
fellow  of  the  American  Academy  of  Arts  and  Sciences.  Among 
the  societies  to  which  he  was  chosen  president  are  the  following: 
American  Association  for  the  Advancement  of  Science  (1876), 
Society  for  Psychical  Research  (1885),  Political  Economy  Club  of 
America  (1887),  American  Mathematical  Society  (1896),  and 
Astronomical  and  Astrophysical  Society  of  America  (1899).  In 
his  own  home  city  he  had  been  elected  president  of  the  Philosophi- 
cal Society  of  Washington  in  1879  and  1880,  and  again  in  1909; 
and  in  1907  of  the  Cosmos  Club. 

With  wise  judgment  Newcomb  in  his  will  bequeathed  to  the 
United  States  for  deposit  and  public  exhibition  in  the  National 
Museum,  his  foreign  decorations,  medals,  prizes  from  scientific 
bodies,  diplomas  and  certificates  from  universities  and  learned 
societies,  so  that  for  all  time,  they  might  testify  to  the  recognition 
his  genius  had  gained  for  him.  Merit  is  quickly  appreciated  in 
this  great  republic  of  ours,  and  to  none  does  it  yield  its  rewards 
more  readily  than  to  those  who  follow  science.  Eloquent  indeed 
are  these  silent  evidences  of  recognition,  for  they  will  ever  show 
that  even  the  humblest  may  aspire  to  the  greatest  honors,  if  only 
he  prove  himself  worthy. 

Happy  also  was  Newcomb  in  his  home  life.  In  1863  he  married 
Mary  Caroline  Hassler,  daughter  of  Dr.  Charles  A.  Hassler  of 


SIMON  NEWCOMB  387 

the  U.  S.  Navy  and  granddaughter  of  F.  R.  Hassler,  the  first 
superintendent  of  the  U.  S.  Coast  Survey,  and  also  great-grand- 
niece  of  David  Rittenhouse  of  Philadelphia,  famous  as  an  astrono- 
mer in  the  early  history  of  this  country.  And  to  their  home  in 
Washington — for  that  city  was  always  their  home — came  many 
friends.  Henry,  with  whom  he  "became  very  intimate,"  and 
other  men  of  science  were  frequent  visitors,  but  soon  others  came 
once,  and  then  again,  and  so  the  circle  grew.  Men  prominent  in 
official  life,  like  Garfield;  statesmen,  like  Sumner;  and  officers 
high  in  the  military  service,  like  Sherman,  were  his  friends.  As 
his  fame  increased  persons  of  distinction  from  all  parts  of  the 
world  when  they  visited  Washington  made  it  their  pleasure  to 
pay  their  respects  to  the  astronomer.  In  his  Reminiscences  he 
tells  how  in  the  centennial  year  Dom  Pedro  d'Alcantara,  then  Em- 
peror of  Brazil,  sought  him,  and  in  recent  years  the  Hon.  James 
Bryce,  the  present  Ambassador  from  Great  Britain,  received  his 
hospitality.  But  after  all  it  was  among  the  younger  men  that  his 
influence  was  most  beneficial.  He  was  quick  to  recognize  ability 
and  equally  quick  to  insist  on  its  recognition.  It  was  Holden,  his 
"assistant  on  the  great  equatorial,"  who  on  his  recommendation 
became  the  first  Director  of  the  Lick  Observatory,  and  he  refers 
to  George  W.  Hill  who  was  his  subordinate  on  the  Nautical 
Almanac  as  "the  greatest  master  of  mathematical  astronomy 
during  the  last  quarter  of  the  nineteenth  century."  To  his  con- 
temporaries he  was  always  just  and  to  his  subordinates  consid- 
erate. 

He  took  his  work  seriously  and  he  believed  in  telling  the  truth, 
that  is,  the  absolute  scientific  truth,  not  what  might  have  occurred 
or  possibly  what  might  have  occurred,  but  absolutely  what  did 
occur  as  he  saw  it  without  any  attempt  at  circumlocution  or 
embellishing  circumstances.  The  simple,  plain,  scientific  state- 
ment of  fact  was  all  that  he  was  willing  to  give,  and  it  was  what 
he  demanded  in  return  from  those  with  whom  he  was  associated. 
He  had  not  much  time  for  the  trivial,  and  yet  whatever  he  under- 
took no  detail  was  ever  disregarded  as  being  insignificant.  It 
seemed  wise  to  the  members  of  the  Cosmos  Club  to  place  him  in 


388          LEADING  AMERICAN  MEN  OF  SCIENCE 

office  as  their  president  without  the  usual  preliminary  elections  to 
the  subordinate  offices  of  manager  and  vice-president,  and  during 
the  year  of  his  incumbency  he  showed  the  utmost  interest  in  the 
duties  of  the  place,  aiding  materially  in  the  progress  of  the  Club 
by  his  many  suggestions  and  excellent  advice.  His  trips  abroad 
were  elaborately  planned,  and  he  always  made  careful  preparation 
by  reading  volume  after  volume  on  the  countries  to  be  visited.  A 
thorough  study  of  his  subject  in  the  beginning  led  to  a  better 
appreciation  of  it  afterwards. 

Industry  and  persistency,  combined  with  an  intellect  that 
enabled  him  to  grasp  the  elements  of  a  problem  and  conquer  them, 
were  the  dominant  traits  of  Newcomb's  character.  To  these 
should  be  added  the  fact  that  he  found  his  pleasure  and  recreation 
in  pursuits  that  to  many  would  have  been  hard  work,  but  to  him 
they  were  relaxation.  Whatever  came  to  him  he  did  well  and  as 
genius  may  be  denned  as  that  quality  of  mind  that  develops  its  own 
environment  then  surely  among  the  great  men  of  the  world,  New- 
comb  was  one  of  the  very  greatest. 

Newcomb's  last  days  were  typical  of  his  life,  for  they  exhibited 
in  a  marked  degree  the  characteristics  of  his  genius.  In  the  autumn 
of  1908  he  returned  from  a  trip  abroad  strengthened  in  mind  and 
in  body,  eager  to  bring  to  a  conclusion  his  great  work  on  the  Motion 
of  the  Moon,  the  completion  of  which  had  been  so  long  deferred. 
A  meeting  of  the  Overseers  of  Harvard  called  him  to  Cambridge 
and  on  his  return  the  symptoms  of  the  fatal  malady  began  to  show 
themselves.  Several  visits  to  specialists  in  Baltimore  failed  to 
give  him  relief,  but  the  disease  was  definitely  diagnosed  as  cancer 
and  located  so  as  to  make  an  operation  impossible.  When  New- 
comb  was  told  that  recovery  could  not  be  expected  he  asked  to 
be  brought  home  at  once,  and  with  that  wonderful  power  of  con- 
centration, in  moments  of  freedom  from  pain,  he  dictated  the 
final  words  of  his  last  contribution  to  science.  On  June  16  it 
was  finished  and  then  turned  over  to  the  printer.  But  the  end 
was  not  yet,  and  for  a  month  longer  he  continued  to  work  prepar- 
ing chapters  for  his  biography  and  putting  his  business  affairs  in 
final  shape. 


SIMON  NEWCOMB  389 

And  then  on  July  n,  1909,  he  passed  away,  and  now  he  abides 

"Where  truth  and  joy  and  beauty  ever  are, 
Beyond  the  sunset  and  the  dying  day, 
Beyond  the  moonrise  and  the  evening  star." 

As  befitting  his  high  rank  of  rear-admiral  in  the  U.  S.  Navy  he 
was  given  an  official  funeral,  which  was  attended  by  President  Taft 
and  escorted  by  representatives  of  scientific  bodies  and  the 
Ambassadors  of  France  and  Germany;  they  buried  him  in 
Arlington,  where  only  those  who  have  served  their  country  are 
permitted  to  lie.  Among  the  Nation's  great  dead  he  is  at  rest. 


GEORGE  BROWN  GOODE 

ZOOLOGIST 

1851-1896 
BY  DAVID  STARR  JORDAN 

THE  untimely  death  of  George  Brown  Goode  left  a  great  break 
in  the  ranks  of  the  scientific  men  of  America.  One  of  the  most 
accurate  and  devoted  of  students,  the  ablest  exponent  of  museum 
methods,  a  man  of  the  most  exalted  personal  character,  Doctor 
Goode  occupied  a  unique  position  in  the  development  of  American 
science. 

George  Brown  Goode  was  born  in  New  Albany,  Indiana,  on 
February  13,  1851,  and  died  of  pneumonia  at  his  home  on  Lanier 
Heights  in  Washington  City  on  September  6,  1896.  According  to 
Dr.  Marcus  Benjamin,  to  whom  I  am  indebted  for  many  of  the 
details  of  this  sketch: 

"Doctor  Goode  was  of  Colonial  descent.  His  family  lived  in 
Virginia,  and  he  traced  with  pride  his  paternal  line  to  John  Goode, 
who  came  to  that  colony  prior  to  1660,  and  settled  four  miles  from 
the  present  site  of  Richmond,  on  an  estate  which  he  named 
'  Whitby.'  John  Goode  was  one  of  the  advisers  of  Bacon  in  1676, 
in  the  first  armed  uprising  of  the  Americans  against  the  oppression 
of  royal  authority.  On  his  mother's  side  he  was  descended  from 
Jasper  Crane,  who  came  to  New  England  before  1630,  and  after- 
wards settled  near  the  present  site  of  Newark,  New  Jersey. 
Doctor  Goode's  father  was  Francis  Collier  Goode,  who  married, 
in  1850,  Sarah  Woodruff  Crane,  and  their  distinguished  son  was 
born  at  the  home  of  his  maternal  grandfather." 

In  1857,  Mr.  Goode's  parents  moved  to  Amenia,  in  New 
York  state,  where  the  boy  passed  his  early  youth,  and  where  he  was 


392          LEADING  AMERICAN  MEN  OF  SCIENCE 

prepared  for  college.  In  due  time  young  Goode  was  matriculated 
in  Wesleyan  University  in  Middletown,  Connecticut,  where  he 
graduated  in  1870,  at  the  too  early  age  of  nineteen. 

The  fixed  curriculum  of  the  college  gave  him  little  opportunity 
for  the  studies  in  which  he  was  chiefly  interested,  and  his  standing 
in  the  conventional  branches  on  which  the  higher  education  was 
then  supposed  to  depend  was  not  unusually  high.  He  was,  how- 
ever, regarded  as  "a  man  exceptionally  promising  for  work"  in 
natural  history. 

Goode  spent  part  of  the  year  of  1870  in  graduate  work  in 
Harvard,  and  there  fell  under  the  stimulating  influence  of  the 
greatest  of  teachers  of  science,  Louis  Agassiz.  Before  the  year 
was  over  he  was  recalled  to  Middletown  to  take  charge  of  the 
Museum  of  Natural  Science  then  just  erected  by  Orange  Judd. 
His  work  in  Judd  Hall  was  a  prelude  to  his  reorganization  of  the 
National  Museum  in  Washington,  an  institution  which  will 
always  show  in  its  classification  and  arrangement  the  traces  of 
his  master  hand. 

In  1872,  he  first  met  Professor  Baird  in  Eastport,  Maine,  and 
in  1873,  while  at  the  meeting  of  the  American  Association  for 
the  Advancement  of  Science,  in  Portland,  Maine,  he  renewed  this 
acquaintance.  Professor  Baird  with  his  characteristic  insight 
into  the  ambitions  and  possibilities  of  promising  young  men, — 
one  of  his  notable  qualities, — invited  Goode  to  aid  in  the  work 
of  the  newly  organized  Fish  Commission.  At  that  time  Pro- 
fessor Baird  was  Assistant  Secretary  of  the  Smithsonian  Institu- 
tion, in  charge  of  the  National  Museum,  and  also  United  States 
Fish  Commissioner.  The  organizations  were  managed  in  similar 
fashion  and  all  their  activities  directed  to  the  same  high  ends. 
Very  soon  Goode  was  brought  into  the  service  of  them  both. 
In  the  summer  he  was  employed  by  the  Fish  Commission  in  in- 
vestigations and  explorations  along  the  Atlantic  Coast.  In  the 
winter  he  divided  his  time  between  Wesleyan  University  and  the 
National  Museum,  until  the  former  institution  was  reluctantly 
compelled,  in  1877,  wholly  to  give  him  up.  Till  that  date  his  only 
compensation  for  work  done  in  Washington  was  found  in  dupli- 


GEORGE  BROWN  GOODE  393 

cate  specimens  of  fishes  and  other  animals,  which  in  turn  were 
presented  by  him  to  the  museum  in  Middletown. 

Miss  Lucy  Baird  writes  (in  a  letter  to  Mr.  T.  D.  A.  Cockerell, 
who  sends  me  this  item):  "  From  the  time  of  their  first  meeting  a 
warm  personal  attachment  sprang  up  between  them  which  deep- 
ened every  year  up  to  the  time  of  my  father's  death.  From  the 
time  when  Mr.  Goode  became  associated  with  the  Museum  work, 
my  father's  burdens  in  connection  therewith  became  greatly  less- 
ened, as  year  by  year,  Mr.  Goode's  ability  in  that  line  developed. 
No  cloud  ever  obscured  their  harmonious  relations,  I  can  recall 
but  one  difference  between  them  and  that  was  on  an  occasion  when 
some  idea  had  been  carried  out  in  connection  with  the  Museum 
work, — an  achievement  in  which  they  both  felt  a  natural  pride, 
each  was  determined  that  all  the  credit  belonged  to  the  other. 
They  argued  so  strongly  that  they  absolutely  grew  a  little  hot  in 
discussing  the  matter.  My  father  wished  Mr.  Goode  to  take  all 
the  credit,  and  Mr.  Goode  insisted  that  he  had  only  developed  what 
my  father  had  created.  ...  If  my  father,"  continues  Miss  Baird 
"had  had  no  other  title  to  the  gratitude  of  the  scientific  world, 
it  would  have  cause  to  remember  him  with  gratitude  for  having 
afforded  the  facilities  for  the  development  of  Mr.  Goode's  genius, 
though  that,  in  time  would  have  made  itself  known  without  aid." 

In  1887  he  became  Assistant  Secretary  of  the  Smithsonian 
Institution,  in  charge  of  the  National  Museum.  On  the  death  of 
Professor  Baird,  he  became  for  a  time  United  States  Fish  Com- 
missioner, holding  the  office  without  pay  until  a  change  in  the  law 
permitted  the  appointment  of  a  separate  salaried  head.  In  his 
later  years  Mr.  Goode  devoted  his  whole  energies  to  museum 
administration,  a  kind  of  work  for  which  no  one  in  the  world  has 
ever  shown  greater  aptitude.  Two  important  publications, 
Museums  of  the  Future  and  Principles  of  Museum  Administration, 
admirably  embody  his  views  and  experiences  in  this  regard.  His 
appreciation  of  the  importance  of  such  work  is  characteristically 
shown  in  his  dedication  of  an  interesting  genus  of  deep-sea  fishes 
to  "Ulysses  Aldrovandi,  of  Bologna,  the  founder  of  the  first  natu- 
ral history  museum." 


394         LEADING  AMERICAN  MEN  OF  SCIENCE 

His  interest  in  museum  administration  caused  a  large  amount 
of  "exposition  work"  to  be  intrusted  to  his  hands.  An  exposition 
is  a  temporary  museum  with  a  distinctly  educational  purpose. 
It  can  be  made  a  mere  public  fair  on  a  large  scale,  or  it  can  be 
made  a  source  of  public  education.  In  Goode's  hands  an  ex- 
hibition of  material  was  always  made  to  teach  some  lesson.  He 
had  charge,  under  Professor  Baird,  of  the  Smithsonian  exhibits 
in  the  Centennial  Exhibition  of  1876,  in  Philadelphia.  He  served 
as  United  States  Commissioner  in  the  Fisheries  Exhibition  held 
in  Berlin  in  1880,  and  in  London  in  1883.  He  was  a  member  of 
the  Board  of  Management  of  the  government  exhibit  in  the 
World's  Columbian  Exposition  of  1893,  and  also  prepared  the 
general  plan  of  classification  adopted  for  the  Exposition.  He  was 
equally  active  in  minor  expositions  held  in  New  Orleans,  Cincin- 
nati, Louisville,  Atlanta,  and  elsewhere.  He  was  also  concerned 
in  the  Columbian  Historical  Exposition  held  in  Madrid  1892-93, 
and  for  part  of  the  time  acted  as  Commissioner- General  for  the 
United  States.  His  services  in  that  connection  were  recognized 
by  the  conferment  of  the  order  of  Isabella  the  Catholic,  with  the 
rank  of  Commander.  From  the  Fisheries  Exposition  in  London 
he  received  a  medal  in  honor  of  his  services  to  the  science  of  ich- 
thyology. 

Goode  was  always  deeply  interested  in  the  historical  and  bi- 
ographical side  of  science,  and  in  the  personality,  the  hopes,  and 
the  sorrows  of  those  who  preceded  him  in  the  study  of  fishes 
and  other  animals.  This  showed  itself  in  sympathetic  sketches  of 
those  who  had  to  do  with  the  beginnings  of  American  science  as 
well  as  with  the  dedication  of  new  genera,  to  those  who  had  done 
hcnor  to  themselves  by  honest  work  in  times  when  good  work  was 
not  easy,  and  was  not  valued  by  the  world.  Among  these  thus 
recognized  by  him  was  Thomas  Harriott,  of  Roanoke  (an  asso- 
ciate of  Raleigh),  who  published  the  first  work  in  English  on 
American  natural  history. 

His  interest  in  the  biographical  side  of  science  led  him  to  the 
scientific  side  of  biography.  From  boyhood  he  was  interested  in 
genealogy.  His  own  family  records  were  published  by  him  under 


GEORGE  BROWN  GOODE  395 

the  title  of  Virginia  Cousins.  This  has  been  regarded  as  a  model 
genealogical  monograph.  Doctor  Goode  believed  that  the  way 
to  do  any  piece  of  work  is  to  do  it  thoroughly.  While  errors  are 
inseparable  from  all  work  in  science,  and  no  man  can  ever  find 
out  the  whole  truth  about  anything  yet  whatever  we  really  know 
can  be  thrown  into  workmanlike  shape.  Nothing  crude  or  inco- 
herent in  form  at  least,  ever  left  Goode's  pen. 

Goode  was  one  of  the  founders  of  the  American  Historical 
Association,  and  a  member  of  its  executive  council  from  1889 
till  his  death.  He  contributed  to  its  Proceedings,  in  1889,  his 
valuable  paper  on  the  "Origin  of  the  National  Scientific  and 
Educational  Institutions  of  the  United  States."  He  was  also  a 
member  of  the  Southern  Historical  Society,  organized  in  1896. 
Much  of  his  leisure  during  his  last  two  summers  was  given  to  the 
preparation  of  the  material  that  is  used  in  the  volume  entitled 
The  Smithsonian  Institution,  1846-96,  which  was  his  project,  and 
is  a  monument  to  his  knowledge  of  science  in  this  country  during 
the  first  half  century  of  the  existence  of  the  Smithsonian  Institution. 

Goode  was  one  of  the  founders  of  the  Society  of  the  Sons  of 
the  American  Revolution  in  the  District  of  Columbia,  and  after 
filling  various  offices  was,  in  1894,  made  President.  He  was  also 
Vice-President  of  the  Society  of  the  Sons  of  the  Revolution,  and 
Lieutenant-Governor  of  the  Society  of  Colonial  Wars  in  the  Dis- 
trict of  Columbia. 

He  was  very  prominent  in  the  organization  and  conduct  of 
scientific  societies,  which  he  regarded  as  valuable  agencies  in  the 
spread  of  scientific  knowledge.  He  had  been  President  both  of 
the  Philosophical  Society  and  the  Biological  Society  of  Washing- 
ton. He  was  elected  to  the  American  Association  for  the  Advance- 
ment of  Science  in  1873,  and  to  the  National  Academy  of  Sciences 
in  1888.  He  was  also  a  member  of  the  Zoological  Society  of 
London.  His  work  in  science  was  recognized  in  1886  by  the  de- 
gree of  Ph.D.  from  the  University  of  Indiana,  his  native  state. 
It  was  the  fortune  of  the  present  writer  to  accept  as  a  thesis  from 
him  the  "Catalogue  of  the  Fishes  of  the  Bermudas,"  and  to  move 
the  granting  of  this  degree.  His  relation  to  general  culture  and 


396          LEADING  AMERICAN  MEN  OF  SCIENCE 

executive  work  was  recognized  by  Wesleyan  University  by  the 
degree  of  LL.D.  conferred  in  1888. 

The  writer  first  met  Mr.  Goode  in  1874,  while  he  was  en- 
gaged in  work  for  the  United  States  Fish  Commission  in  Noank, 
Connecticut.  He  was  then  a  young  man  of  scholarly  appearance, 
winning  manners,  and  a  very  enthusiastic  student  of  fishes.  In 
figure  he  was  of  medium  height,  rather  slender,  and  very  active. 
His  countenance  was  intellectual,  and  he  seemed  always  to  have 
a  very  definite  idea  of  what  he  wished  to  do. 

Our  first  meeting  was  in  connection  with  an  effort  on  his  part 
to  find  the  difference  between  the  two  genera  of  fishes  called 
Ceratacanthus  and  Alutera.  At  this  time  I  was  greatly  impressed 
with  the  accuracy  and  neatness  of  his  work,  and  especially  with 
his  love  of  what  may  be  called  the  literary  side  of  science, — a  side 
too  often  neglected  by  scientific  men.  He  detested  an  inaccuracy, 
a  misspelled  name,  or  a  slovenly  record,  as  he  would  have  despised 
any  other  vice.  Indeed,  in  all  his  work  and  relations,  moral  purity 
and  scientific  accuracy  were  one  and  the  same  thing.  He  had 
inherited  or  acquired  "the  Puritan  conscience,"  and  applied  it 
not  only  to  lapses  of  personal  integrity,  but  to  weaknesses  and 
slovenliness  of  all  sorts.  Hence  he  became  in  Washington  not 
only  a  power  in  scientific  matters,  but  a  source  of  moral  strength 
to  the  community.  His  influence  is  felt  in  the  Museum,  not  only 
in  the  wisdom  of  its  organization,  but  in  the  personal  character 
of  its  body  of  curators.  The  irresponsible  life  of  Bohemia  is  not 
favorable  to  good  work  in  science,  and  the  men  he  chose  as  asso- 
ciates belong  to  another  order. 

As  to  Doctor  Goode's  moral  influence  and  youthful  character- 
istics the  following  extracts  from  a  private  letter  of  Prof.  Otis  T. 
Mason  will  be  found  valuable: 

"  Two  characteristics  of  the  man  fixed  themselves  upon  my  mind 
indelibly:  I  found  him  to  be  intensely  consciencious  and  I  could  see 
that  he  was  a  young  man  who  not  only  wished  to  live  a  correct 
life  himself,  but  abhorred  the  association  of  evil  men. 

"Another  characteristic  which  forced  itself  upon  me  was  his 
devotion  to  the  museum  side  of  scientific  investigation.  He  wrote 


GEORGE  BROWN  GOODE  397 

a  beautiful  hand,  and  on  one  occasion  he  told  me  that  it  was  just 
as  much  the  duty  of  a  scientific  investigator  to  write  a  good  hand 
and  spell  his  names  correctly,  so  that  there  would  be  no  mistake 
in  the  label,  as  it  was  for  him  to  make  his  investigations  accurately. 
You  will  find  if  you  will  look  over  some  of  the  specimens  which  he 
marked  at  that  time,  beautiful  numerals,  clear  and  distinct,  so  that 
there  is  no  mistaking  one  from  the  other. 

"Again,  I  discovered  the  pedagogic  feeling  to  be  very  strong  in 
him,  and  the  interests  of  the  public  no  less  than  of  the  investigator 
were  constantly  before  his  mind.  Indeed,  there  was  nothing 
about  Doctor  Goode  in  his  admirable  management  of  the  Museum 
in  later  years  that  did  not  make  its  appearance  to  some  extent 
when  he  had  the  work  to  do  with  his  own  hands.  The  germ  of 
our  present  discipline  manifested  itself  in  the  discipline  which  he 
exerted  over  his  own  conduct  when  he  was  junior  assistant  instead 
of  director. 

"About  the  time  that  Doctor  Goode  came  to  the  Museum,  I 
undertook  to  arrange  the  ethnological  collections.  I  can  remember 
the  delight  which  it  gave  him  to  consider  a  classification  in  which 
the  activities  of  mankind  were  divided  into  genera  and  species 
subject  to  the  laws  of  natural  history,  of  evolution,  and  geographic 
surroundings.  The  development  of  the  Department  of  Arts  and 
Industries  has  been  the  result  of  these  early  studies." 

Doctor  Goode  had  a  wonderful  power  of  analyzing  the  relations 
or  contents  of  any  group  of  activities,  or  of  any  objects  of  study. 
This  showed  itself  notably  in  his  two  catalogues  of  collections 
illustrating  the  animal  resources  of  the  United  States.  These  cat- 
alogues were  written  with  reference  to  the  arrangement  of  material 
for  the  exhibits  of  the  Smithsonian  Institution  and  the  United 
States  Fish  Commission  at  the  Centennial  Exhibition  at  Phila- 
delphia. 

Doctor  Gill  says,  in  his  admirable  biographical  sketch: 

"It  was  the  ability  that  was  manifested  in  these  catalogues  and 
the  work  incidental  to  their  preparation  that  especially  arrested 
the  attention  of  Professor  Baird,  and  marked  the  author  as  one 
well  adapted  for  the  direction  of  a  great  museum.  For  signal 
success  in  such  direction  special  qualifications  are  requisite.  Only 
some  of  them  are  a  mind  well  trained  in  analytical  as  well  as  syn- 
thetic methods,  an  artistic  sense,  critical  ability,  and  multifarious 
knowledge,  but  above  all  the  knowledge  of  men  and  how  to  deal 


398          LEADING  AMERICAN  MEN  OF  SCIENCE 

with  them.  Perhaps  no  one  has  ever  combined,  in  more  harmo- 
nious proportions,  such  qualifications  than  G.  Brown  Goode.  In 
him  the  National  Museum  of  the  United  States  and  the  world  at 
large  have  lost  one  of  the  greatest  of  museum  administrators." 

The  most  striking  character  of  Doctor  Goode's  scientific  papers 
was  perhaps  their  scholarly  accuracy  and  good  taste.  He  never 
wrote  a  paper  carelessly.  He  was  never  engaged  in  any  contro- 
versy, and  he  rarely  made  a  statement  which  had  later  to  be 
withdrawn.  Yet  no  one  was  more  ready  to  acknowledge  an  error, 
if  one  were  made,  and  none  showed  greater  willingness  to  recog- 
nize the  good  work  of  others.  The  literature  even  of  the  most 
out-of-the-way  branch  of  zoological  research  had  a  great  fascina- 
tion for  him,  and  he  found  in  bibliography  and  in  the  records  of 
the  past  workers  in  science  a  charm  scarcely  inferior  to  that  of 
original  observation  and  research.  In  his  later  years  administra- 
tive duties  occupied  more  and  more  of  his  time,  restricting  the 
opportunities  for  his  own  studies.  He  seemed,  however,  to  have 
as  great  delight  in  the  encouragement  he  could  give  to  the  work 
of  others. 

The  great  work  of  his  life — Oceanic  Ichthyology — was,  however, 
written  during  the  period  of  his  directorship  of  the  National 
Museum,  and  published  but  a  month  before  his  death.  Almost 
simultaneous  with  this  were  other  important  publications  of  the 
National  Museum,  which  were  his  also  in  a  sense,  for  they  would 
never  have  been  undertaken  except  for  his  urgent  wish  and  encour- 
agement. If  a  personal  word  may  be  pardoned,  The  Fishes  of 
North  and  Middle  America  (of  Jordan  and  Evermann)  which 
closely  followed  Oceanic  Ichthyology,  would  never  have  been 
written  except  for  my  friend's  repeated  insistence  and  generous 
help. 

In  the  earlier  days  of  the  scientific  activities  of  the  Smithsonian 
Institution,  there  was  scarcely  a  young  naturalist  of  serious  pur- 
poses in  the  land  who  had  not  in  some  way  received  help  and  en- 
couragement from  Professor  Baird.  With  equally  unselfish  effect- 
iveness and  lack  of  ostentation,  Doctor  Goode  was  also  in  different 
ways  a  source  of  aid  and  inspiration  to  all  of  his  scientific  contempo- 


GEORGE  BROWN  GOODE  399 

raries.  The  influence  of  the  National  Museum  for  good  in  the 
United  States  has  been  great  in  a  degree  far  out  of  proportion  to 
the  sums  of  money  it  has  had  to  expend.  It  has  not  been  a  Wash- 
ington institution,  but  its  influence  has  been  national. 

The  first  recorded  scientific  paper  of  Doctor  Goode  is  a  note  on 
the  occurrence  of  the  bill-fish  in  fresh  water  in  the  Connecticut 
River.  The  next  is  a  critical  discussion  of  the  answers  to  the 
question  "Do  snakes  swallow  their  young?"  In  this  paper  he 
shows  that  there  is  good  reason  to  believe  that  in  certain  viviparous 
snakes,  the  young  seek  refuge  in  the  stomach  of  the  mother  when 
frightened,  and  that  they  come  out  when  the  reason  for  their 
retreat  has  passed. 

The  first  of  the  many  technical  and  descriptive  papers  on  fishes 
was  the  "Catalogue  of  the  Fishes  of  the  Bermudas,"  published 
in  1876.  This  is  a  model  record  of  field  observations  and  is  one 
of  the  best  of  local  catalogues.  Doctor  Goode  retained  his  interest 
in  this  outpost  of  the  great  West  Indian  fauna,  and  from  time  to 
time  recorded  the  various  additions  made  to  his  first  Bermudan 
catalogue. 

After  this  followed  a  large  number  of  papers  on  fishes,  chiefly 
descriptions  of  species  or  monographs  of  groups.  The  descriptive 
papers  were  nearly  all  written  in  association  with  his  excellent 
friend,  Doctor  Tarleton  H.  Bean,  then  Curator  of  Fishes  in  the 
National  Museum. 

In  monographic  work,  Doctor  Goode  took  the  deepest  interest, 
and  he  delighted  especially  in  the  collection  of  historic  data  con- 
cerning groups  of  species.  The  quaint  or  poetical  features  of  such 
work  were  never  overlooked  by  him.  Notable  among  these  mono- 
graphs are  those  of  the  Menhaden,  the  Trunk-fishes,  and  the 
Swordfishes. 

The  economic  side  of  science  also  interested  him  more  and  more. 
That  scientific  knowledge  could  add  to  human  wealth  or  comfort 
was  no  reproach  in  his  eyes.  In  his  notable  monograph  of  the 
Menhaden,  the  economic  value  as  food  or  manure  of  this  plebeian 
fish  received  the  careful  attention  which  he  had  given  to  the  prob- 
lems of  pure  science. 


400          LEADING  AMERICAN  MEN  OF  SCIENCE 

Doctor  Goode's  power  in  organizing  and  coordinating  practical 
investigations  was  shown  in  his  monumental  work  on  the  Ameri- 
can fisheries  for  the  Tenth  Census  in  1880.  The  preparation  of 
the  record  of  the  fisheries  and  associated  aquatic  industries  was 
placed  in  his  hands,  by  Francis  A.  Walker,  Superintendent  of 
the  Census.  Under  Doctor  Goode's  direction  skilled  investigators 
were  sent  to  every  part  of  the  coast  and  inland  waters  of  the  coun- 
try. A  general  survey  of  the  aquatic  resources,  actual  and  possible, 
of  the  United  States  was  attempted,  and  statistics  of  every  kind 
were  secured  on  a  grand  scale.  His  directions  to  field  agents,  still 
unpublished,  were  models  in  their  way,  and  no  possible  source  of 
information  was  neglected  by  him.  The  results  of  all  these  special 
reports  were  received  and  condensed  by  Doctor  Goode  into  seven 
large  quarto  volumes,  with  a  great  number  of  plates.  The  first 
section  of  the  Natural  History  of  Aquatic  Animals  was  a  contri- 
bution of  the  greatest  value.  Although  the  information  it  gives 
was  obtained  from  many  sources,  through  various  hands,  it  was 
so  coordinated  and  unified  that  it  forms  a  harmonious  treatise, 
while  at  the  same  time  the  individual  helpers  are  fully  recog- 
nized. 

All  these  works,  according  to  Doctor  Goode,  belong  to  Lamb's 
category  of  "books  which  are  not  books."  His  expressed  ambition 
to  write  a  book  not  of  this  kind,  one  that  people  would  buy  and 
read,  found  actuality  at  last.  In  1888,  appeared  his  American 
Fishes,  a  popular  treatise  on  the  game  and  food-fishes  of  North 
America,  a  work  without  a  rival  because  of  its  readableness,  its 
scientific  accuracy,  and  the  excellence  of  its  text.  The  work  is 
notable  for  its  quotations,  which  include  almost  all  the  bright 
things  which  have  been  said  about  fishes  by  poets  and  anglers 
and  philosophers  from  the  time  of  Aristotle  to  Izaak  Walton  and 
Thoreau.  In  this  book  more  than  in  any  other  Doctor  Goode 
shows  himself  a  literary  artist.  The  love  of  fine  expression  which 
might  have  made  a  poet  of  him  was  developed  rather  in  the  collec- 
tion of  the  bright  words  and  charming  verse  of  others  than  in  the 
production  of  poetry  of  his  own.  While  limiting  himself  in  this 
volume  to  fragments  of  prose  and  verse  in  praise  of  fishes  and 


GEORGE  BROWN  GOODE  401 

their  haunts,  it  is  evident  that  these  treasures  were  brought  forth 
from  a  mind  well  stored  with  riches  of  many  fields  of  literature. 

The  most  important  of  Doctor's  Goode  scientific  studies  had 
relation  to  the  fishes  of  the  deep  sea.  In  all  this  work  he  was  asso- 
ciated with  Doctor  Bean,  and  the  studies  of  many  years  were 
brought  together  in  the  splendid  summary  of  all  that  is  known  of 
the  fishes  of  the  ocean  depths  and  the  open  sea.  This  forms  two 
large  quarto  volumes— text  and  atlas— published  under  the  name 
of  Oceanic  Ichthyology,  shortly  before  Doctor  Goode's  death.  The 
exploration  of  the  deep  sea  has  been  mostly  undertaken  within 
the  last  twenty  years.  The  monumental  work  of  the  Challenger, 
under  the  direction  of  the  British  government,  has  laid  the  founda- 
tion of  our  knowledge  of  its  fauna.  The  Travailleur  and  the 
Talisman,  under  French  auspices,  and  the  Investigator,  under 
direction  of  the  government  of  India,  have  added  greatly  to  our 
stock  of  information.  The  great  work  of  Goode  and  Bean  includes 
the  results  of  these  and  of  various  minor  expeditions,  while  through 
the  collections  of  the  Albatross,  the  Blake  and  the  Fish  Hawk 
they  have  made  great  additions  to  the  knowledge  of  the  subject. 
Indeed,  the  work  of  the  Albatross  in  deep-sea  exploration  is  second 
in  importance  only  to  that  of  the  Challenger.  In  the  work  of  the 
exact  discrimination  of  genera  and  species,  this  work  shows  a 
distinct  advance  over  all  other  treatises  on  the  abyssal  fishes. 
The  fact  of  the  existence  of  definite  though  large  faunal  areas  in 
the  deep  seas  was  first  recognized  by  Doctor  Goode,  and  has  been 
carefully  worked  out  in  a  memoir  still  unpublished.  In  Oceanic 
Ichthyology  and  the  minor  papers  preceding  it,  Goode  and  Bean 
had  made  known  numerous  new  forms  of  deep-sea  fishes,  naming 
in  the  last-mentioned  work  alone  one  hundred  and  fifty-six  new 
species  and  fifty-five  new  genera  belonging  to  the  abyssal  fauna  of 
the  Atlantic. 

But  Doctor  Goode's  interest  and  sympathy  were  not  confined 
to  the  branch  of  science  in  which  he  was  a  master.  He  had  a  broad 
acquaintance  with  general  natural  history,  with  crustaceans, 
reptiles,  birds,  and  mammals.  On  all  these  groups  he  published 
occasional  notes.  Doctor  Gill  tells  us  that  "the  flowering  plants 


402          LEADING  AMERICAN  MEN  OF  SCIENCE 

also  enlisted  much  of  his  attention,  and  his  excursions  into  the 
fields  and  woods  were  enlivened  by  a  knowledge  of  the  objects 
he  met  with."  "Anthropology,"  Doctor  Gill  continues,  "natu- 
rally secured  a  due  proportion  of  his  regards,  and,  indeed,  his 
catalogues  truly  embraced  the  outlines  of  a  system  of  the  science." 

Doctor  Goode  was,  as  already  stated,  always  very  greatly  inter- 
ested in  bibliography.  No  work  to  him  was  ever  tedious,  if  it 
were  possible  to  make  it  accurate.  He  had  well  under  way  the 
catalogues  of  the  writings  of  many  American  naturalists,  among 
others  those  of  Doctor  Gill  and  the  present  writer.  Two  of  these 
are  already  published  under  the  Smithsonian  Institution  as  Bulle- 
tins of  the  United  States  National  Museum,  being  numbers  of  a 
series  of  "Bibliographies  of  American  Naturalists."  The  first 
contained  the  writings  of  Spencer  Fullerton  Baird  (1883).  An- 
other is  devoted  to  Charles  Girard  (1891),  who  was  an  associate 
of  Professor  Baird,  though  for  his  later  years  resident  in  Paris. 
A  bibliography  of  the  English  ornithologist,  Philip  Lutley  Sclater 
(1896),  has  been  issued  since  Doctor  Goode's  death. 

Doctor  Gill  tells  us  that  "a  gigantic  work  in  the  same  line  had 
been  projected  by  him  and  most  of  the  material  collected;  it  was 
no  less  than  a  complete  bibliography  of  Ichthyology,  including 
the  names  of  all  genera  and  species  published  as  new.  Whether 
this  can  be  completed  by  another  hand  remains  to  be  seen.  While 
the  work  is  a  great  desideratum,  very  few  would  be  willing  to 
undertake  it  or  even  arrange  the  matter  already  collected  for  publi- 
cation. In  no  way  may  Ichthyology,  at  least,  more  feel  the  loss 
of  Goode  than  in  the  loss  of  the  complete  bibliography." 

Doctor  Goode  was  married  on  November  27,  1877,  to  Sarah 
Lamson  Ford  Judd,  daughter  of  Orange  Judd,  the  well-known 
publisher,  and  the  founder  of  Orange  Judd  Hall  at  Wesleyan 
University,  in  which  Doctor  Goode's  career  as  a  museum  admin- 
istrator began.  The  married  life  of  Doctor  and  Mrs.  Goode 
was  a  very  happy  one;  the  wife  and  four  children  are  still  living. 

As  to  personal  qualities  of  Doctor  Goode,  I  cannot  do  better 
than  to  quote  the  following  words  of  two  of  his  warmest  friends. 
Doctor  S.  P.  Langley  wrote:  "I  have  never  known  a  more  perfectly 


GEORGE  BROWN  GOODE  403 

true,  sincere  and  loyal  character  than  Doctor  Goode's;  or  a  man 
who  with  better  judgment  of  other  men,  or  greater  ability  in 
moulding  their  purposes  to  his  own,  used  these  powers  to  such 
uniformly  disinterested  ends,  so  that  he  could  maintain  the  disci- 
pline of  a  great  establishment  like  the  National  Museum,  while 
retaining  the  personal  affection  of  every  subordinate."  "His 
disposition,"  says  Doctor  Theodore  Gill,  "was  a  bright  and  sunny 
one,  and  he  ingratiated  himself  in  the  affections  of  his  friends  in 
a  marked  degree.  He  had  a  hearty  way  of  meeting  intimates, 
and  a  caressing  cast  of  the  arm  over  the  shoulder  of  such  an  one 
often  followed  sympathetic  intercourse.  But  in  spite  of  his  gentle- 
ness, firmness  and  vigor  in  action  became  manifest  when  occasion 
called  for  them." 

Of  all  American  naturalists,  Doctor  Goode  was  the  most  method- 
ical, the  most  conscientious,  and,  in  his  way,  the  most  artistic. 
And  of  them  all  no  one  was  more  beloved  by  his  fellows.  Neither 
in  his  life  nor  after  death  was  ever  an  unkind  word  said  of  him. 


HENRY  AUGUSTUS  ROWLAND 

PHYSICIST 

1848-1901 
BY  IRA  REMSEN 

SOME  persons  are  interesting  on  account  of  their  ancestors,  and 
some  ancestors  are  interesting  on  account  of  their  offspring. 
While  it  appears  that  some  of  the  forbears  of  the  subject  of  this 
sketch  were  interesting  in  their  own  right  it  is  certain  that  they 
are  interesting  to  the  world  at  large  chiefly  because  of  their  rela- 
tionship to  the  distinguished  physicist,  Henry  A.  Rowland.  It 
may  help  us  to  learn  of  what  stock  he  sprang.  His  paternal  great- 
grandfather, Rev.  David  S.  Rowland,  was  a  graduate  of  Yale 
and  pastor  of  the  First  Congregational  Church  at  Windsor,  Con- 
necticut. The  son  of  David  S.  was  named  Henry  Augustus.  He 
was  a  graduate  of  Dartmouth  College  and  succeeded  his  father  as 
pastor  of  the  church  at  Windsor,  Connecticut.  Of  him  it  is  said, 
"He  was  a  man  of  sense  and  worth,  who  did  not  hesitate  to  speak 
what  he  regarded  as  the  truth  with  freedom  and  plainness." 

Next  came  the  father  of  the  physicist.  He  also  received  the 
name  Henry  Augustus.  His  biographer  states  that  he  was  an 
"ardent,  resolute,  almost  impetuous  boy,  a  leader  of  sports  on 
land  and  on  water,  his  irrepressible  spirits  breaking  out  in  his 
intercourse  with  his  friends  and  companions,  and  in  spite  of  every 
restraint,  in  laughter  and  frolic."  "He  was  from  very  early  years 
familiar  with  the  gun  and  the  fishing-rod,  and  all  kinds  of  wood- 
craft and  country  sports."  He  was  graduated  from  Yale  in  1823, 
became  a  clergyman,  and  successively  had  charges  at  Fayetteville, 
South  Carolina,  New  York,  Honesdale,  Pennsylvania,  and  New- 
ark, New  Jersey.  The  evidence  is  clear  that  he  was  a  man  of 

405 


406         LEADING  AMERICAN  MEN  OF  SCIENCE 

unusual  ability,  of  the  highest  character,  of  high  spirits,  and  of 
great  moral  courage.  He  married  Harriet  Hayes  of  New  York, 
a  gentle  lady  of  sweet  character  and  good  mind.  She  lived  to  the 
age  of  81,  while  her  husband  died  in  the  fifty-fifth  year  of  his  age. 
It  was  at  Honesdale,  Pennsylvania,  in  1848,  that  the  next 
Henry  Augustus  Rowland  was  born.  Here  he  lived  until  1855, 
when  the  family  moved  to  Newark,  New  Jersey.  He  attended  the 
Newark  Academy.  Mr.  S.  A.  Farrand  under  whose  teaching  he 
came  writes  in  regard  to  him: 

"Henry  A.  Rowland  entered  the  classical  department  of  the 
Newark  Academy  in  September,  1861,  and  began  his  preparation 
for  the  academic  course  in  college.  I  remember  him  as  a  rather 
quiet  boy  of  winning  personality.  He  did  well  in  all  his  studies 
excepting  Latin,  with  which  he  found  difficulty  from  the  beginning. 
This  was  surprising,  for  he  was  a  bright,  willing  boy,  showing 
indications  of  unusual  ability  and  yet  was  constantly  dragging  in 
this  study.  After  a  year  of  this  experience  I  took  him  from  his 
class  in  Latin  and  for  some  months  heard  him  recite  alone,  in  order 
to  get  a  better  opportunity  to  study  his  mental  action  and  discover, 
if  possible,  his  difficulty.  I  found  no  lack  of  ability,  but  so  strong 
an  aversion  to  Latin,  while  at  the  same  time  finding  pleasure  in 
other  studies,  that  he  could  not  control  his  mind  and  force  it  to  do 
good  work  upon  the  repugnant  task. 

"I  advised  his  mother  to  let  Henry  drop  the  distasteful  study 
and  to  direct  his  education  along  those  lines  so  distinctly  marked 
in  his  nature.  But  this  was  before  scientific  studies  had  won  their 
present  prominence  in  our  colleges.  Classical  traditions  were 
strong  in  the  family,  his  father,  grandfather,1  and  great-grand- 
father having  been  graduates  of  Yale,  and  clergymen.  His 
mother  had  no  other  thought  than  that  Henry,  with  his  superior 
ability,  would  follow  in  the  succession  and  keep  up  the  traditions 
of  the  family.  For  him  to  turn  away  from  this  and  give  himself 
to  scientific  studies  seemed  like  throwing  away  her  boy,  and  was 
not  to  be  considered.  He  must  continue  his  classical  studies, 
and  he  would  certainly  grow  to  like  them.  He  did  continue  them 
for  a  year  or  two  more,  during  which  time  Mrs.  Rowland  and  I 
had  several  conferences  concerning  the  matter.  Henry's  dislike 
increased  and  was  intensified  by  the  addition  of  Greek  to  his 
studies.  I  had  a  deep  sympathy  with  him,  for  he  was  struggling 

1  His  grandfather  was  in  fact  a  graduate  of  Dartmouth. 


HENRY  AUGUSTUS  ROWLAND  407 

manfully  to  do  that  which  to  him  was  impossible.  Finally,  I  said 
to  his  mother  that  my  convictions  were  so  strong  that  his  educa- 
tional development  should  proceed  in  different  lines,  that  if  he 
must  continue  his  classical  studies  I  preferred  that  he  should  do  so 
in  some  other  school. 

"Mrs.  Rowland  decided  to  make  one  more  effort,  failing  in 
which  she  would  follow  my  advice.  Henry  was  accordingly  sent 
to  Phillips  Academy,  Andover,  Mass.,  where,  after  a  brief  period  of 
torture  with  Latin  and  Greek,  he  was  permitted  to  drop  them, 
greatly  to  his  delight  and  my  own. 

"From  that  moment  he  was  happy,  and  continued  to  rise  and 
shine  with  a  clear  and  still  clearer  light." 

In  a  letter  to  his  mother  written  at  Andover,  he  says:  "I  am 
not  lazy  at  all  now  and  am  more  punctual  than  most  of  the  other 
boys."  But  the  aversion  to  the  study  of  ancient  languages  con- 
tinued and  after  one  year  spent  in  the  effort  he  was  allowed  to 
enter  the  Rensselaer  Polytechnic  Institute  at  Troy,  New  York. 
Here  the  atmosphere  was  more  congenial.  Soon  after  the  year's 
work  had  begun,  he  wrote:  "I  am  getting  along  finely  and  like 
it  first  rate.  We  study  Algebra,  Geometry,  and  French  and,  as  I 
said  before,  are  going  to  commence  Drawing  on  Thursday." 
This  was  in  1865.  Next  year  he  wrote:  "We  have  descriptive 
Geometry  and  Chemistry  now  besides  Drawing.  We  are  quite 
busy,  but  still  have  lots  of  fun  snow-balling  every  afternoon  before 
and  after  Chemistry."  That  science  did  not  claim  all  his  attention 
is  evident  from  this  passage  taken  from  a  letter  written  in  1867: 
"I  am  now  reading  Prescott's  Philip  Second  of  Spain,  and  have 
nearly  got  through  the  first  volume.  It  is  very  interesting."  But 
the  ruling  passion  appears  in  the  next  sentence:  "My  steam 
engine  is  getting  along  finely  but  I  do  not  have  much  time  to  work 
on  it."  Shortly  after  this  he  wrote:  "  I  am  going  to  read  a  paper  on 
steam  illustrated  by  experiments  as  soon  as  I  can  get  the  appara- 
tus prepared.  We  are  very  busy  and  I  have  not  been  able  even 
to  look  at  my  tools  yet." 

After  three  years  spent  at  Troy,  during  which  time  he  evidently 
did  excellent  work  in  most  of  his  studies  he  decided  for  some 
reason  that  is  not  clear  to  go  to  the  Sheffield  Scientific  School  and 


408         LEADING  AMERICAN  MEN  OF  SCIENCE 

take  the  course  in  Mechanical  Engineering.  Apparently  he  was 
not  admitted  to  the  regular  course  but  was  admitted  as  a  special 
student  in  Chemistry.  A  very  interesting  letter  written  by  him  to 
his  mother  in  1868,  soon  after  his  arrival  at  New  Haven,  has  been 
preserved.  This  is  so  significant  that  the  principal  part  of  it  is 
here  given: 

"You  probably  all  think  that  I  am  careless  about  the  future 
but  there  is  no  one  who  thinks  more  about  it  than  I  do,  and  this 
is  the  reason  why  I  do  not  like  to  talk  about  it.  I  feel  as  if  it  was 
my  duty  and  vocation  to  be  an  investigator  in  science  and  I  felt 
something  like  a  Jonah  when  I  came  here  to  study  mechanical 
engineering.  I  know  I  am  best  fitted  for  it  and  it  is  only  a  question 
of  dollars  that  decided  me.  Besides  that  I  have  such  a  liking  for 
experiment  that  I  cannot  think  it  was  given  to  me  to  be  a  torment 
all  my  life  as  it  would  be  if  I  did  anything  else.  As  to  the  practical 
part  of  it,  I  can  only  say  that  what  other  people  have  done  /  can 
do  and  other  people  have  made  their  living  by  it  (or  something 
similar)  and  therefore  I  can  do  it." 

Of  his  work  at  New  Haven,  Prof.  George  J.  Brush  writes: 

"While  here  he  showed  himself  to  be  an  exceedingly  intelligent 
and  persistent  student,  interested  not  only  in  the  regular  course  in 
analytical  and  general  chemistry,  but  in  many  subjects  not  included 
in  the  course.  Professor  Johnson,  with  whom  I  have  just  been 
conversing  about  Rowland,  recalls  R's  great  enthusiasm  in  mak- 
ing metallic  lithium  by  electrolysis.  We  saw  in  him  a  man  of 
unusual  ability  and  great  promise,  but  his  stay  here  was  too  brief 
for  us  to  gain  anything  more  than  this  general  impression." 

He  spent  only  one  year  at  New  Haven  and  then  returned  to 
Troy.  In  1870,  he  received  the  degree  of  Civil  Engineer.  He  was 
now  out  in  the  world.  What  next?  The  only  thing  that  offered 
itself  was  a  job  at  surveying,  and  at  this  he  went.  During  the 
next  year  an  opportunity  presented  itself  to  him  of  going  to  Cali- 
fornia. In  a  letter  written  June,  1871,  he  says,  in  regard  to  this: 
"There  is  nothing  I  should  like  better  if  I  had  time  to  devote  to  a 
year  of  pleasure,  but  I  have  other  work  before  me."  From  the 
autumn  of  1871  to  the  summer  of  1872,  he  taught  chemistry 


HENRY  AUGUSTUS  ROWLAND  409 

and  perhaps  also  physics  at  Wooster,  Ohio,  and  in  the  autumn  of 
1872  he  returned  to  Troy  to  teach  physics.  He  seems  to  have 
enjoyed  his  experience  at  Wooster  for  he  writes  soon  after  his 
arrival  at  Troy:  "I  got  away  from  Wooster  all  right  and  those 
who  were  most  concerned  seemed  to  be  sorry  to  lose  me.  Nearly 
all  my  class  came  to  see  me  before  I  left  which  was  quite  encourag- 
ing. I  felt  quite  sorry  to  leave  them  but  it  was  necessary."  He 
was  now  only  24  years  old,  and  it  may  be  imagined  that  he  did 
not  find  the  work  at  Troy  altogether  easy.  To  his  mother  he 
writes:  "I  have  been  here  8  days  now  and  am  beginning  to  get 
used  to  it.  There  are  65  students  under  my  instruction  and  I  have 
to  keep  a  pretty  tight  rein  on  them.  They  are  very  much  inclined 
to  cut  up  and  I  shall  have  to  be  pretty  strict  with  them  and  not 
let  them  commence." 

It  will  be  of  interest  to  learn  what  Rowland  had  been  doing  in 
the  way  of  invention  and  investigation  previous  to  the  time  of  his 
appointment  to  the  position  at  Troy.  His  tastes  began  to  show 
themselves  very  early  in  his  life.  When  only  three  years  of  age 
he  made  a  model  of  a  clock  from  an  old  raisin  box.  In  his  four- 
teenth year  he  made  an  electric  machine  out  of  an  old  bottle,  and 
also  Leyden  jars  to  work  with  it.  At  the  same  time,  further,  he 
invented  a  method  of  making  electromagnets  by  winding  bare 
wire  with  layers  of  paper.  In  a  note-book  kept  by  him  I  find  the 
following  records: 

"February,  1863:  Uncle  Forsyth  gave  me  some  money  and  I 
bought  four  cells  of  a  galvanic  battery  (Bunsen  cells).  I  had 
previously  made  some  out  of  zinc  and  copper  plates.  Made  motor 
etc.  to  go  by  it." 

"November,  1864:   Made  shock  machine." 

"January,  1865:  Made  furnace  to  melt  iron  or  manganese. 
Made  manganese." 

"July,  1865:   Made  large  electric  motor." 

"October,  1865:  Made  astatic  galvanometer.  Needle  hung 
by  a  new  method." 

"November,  1865:  Made  electrometer.  Also  polariscope  by 
reflection  from  black  glass." 

"May,  1866:  Made  Ruhmkorff  coil  giving  one-third  inch  sparks 
by  winding  iron  wires  wide  apart  with  paper  between.  Made 


410         LEADING  AMERICAN  MEN  OF  SCIENCE 

vacuum  tubes  by  boiling  mercury  in  tubes  and  sealing  them  up 
while  boiling." 

"June,  1866:  Obtained  a  law  that  the  mechanical  equivalent 
of  electricity  is  equal  to  its  quantity  multiplied  by  its  intensity." 

A  note  added  in  1900,  reads: 

"By  'intensity'  I  meant  tension  or  potential.  Therefore  the 
above  is  correct." 

"February,  1868:  Made  very  delicate  astatic  galvanometer. 
Used  it  for  magnetic  permeability  experiments." 

"September,  1868:  Invented  dynamo  armature.  The  first  con- 
tinuous current  armature  ever  made." 

While  in  his  seventeenth  year,  in  the  early  autumn  of  1865, 
Rowland  wrote  a  letter  to  The  Scientific  American  and  much  to 
his  surprise  this  was  printed.  He  says  of  it:  "I  wrote  it  as  a  kind 
of  joke  and  did  not  expect  them  to  publish  it."  This  was  his  first 
appearance  in  print.  Six  years  later  he  sent  another  paper  to 
The  Scientific  American — this  time  a  serious  one.  It  was  a  criti- 
cism of  an  invention  which  was  in  conflict  with  the  law  of  the 
Conservation  of  Energy.  In  this  communication  he  displayed 
those  qualities  of  mind  which  appeared  in  all  his  later  work.  Just 
after  he  returned  to  the  Rensselaer  Polytechnic  Institute  he  pub- 
lished an  article  on  "Illustrations  of  Resonances  and  Actions  of  a 
Similar  Nature."  This  appeared  in  the  Journal  of  the  Franklin 
Institute. 

No  attempt  will  be  made  in  this  article  to  give  a  complete 
account  of  Rowland's  scientific  work,  but  it  is  necessary  to  refer 
to  his  most  important  contributions.  One  of  his  early  experiences 
was  discouraging,  but  out  of  it  came  encouragement.  He  had 
been  for  some  time  engaged  in  a  research  on  the  magnetic  per- 
meability and  the  maximum  magnetization  of  iron,  steel,  and 
nickel,  when  he  brought  his  results  together  and  sent  the  article 
to  a  well-known  American  scientific  journal  for  publication.  He 
writes  to  his  sister  June  9,  1873:  "I  have  just  sent  off  the  results 
of  my  experiments  to  the  publisher  and  expect  considerable  from 
it;  not,  however,  filthy  lucre,  but  good,  substantial  reputation." 


HENRY  AUGUSTUS  ROWLAND  411 

The  article  was  rejected  by  the  editor  of  the  American  journal 
and  again  rejected  after  revision.  The  fault  was  not  with  the 
article,  for,  when  it  was  sent  to  Clerk  Maxwell,  in  England,  the 
highest  authority,  its  value  was  at  once  recognized,  and  it  was  sent 
to  The  Philosophical  Magazine  for  immediate  publication.  It 
appeared  in  that  journal  in  August,  1873,  and  through  it  Rowland 
became  favorably  known  to  the  scientific  world.  Professor  Men- 
denhall  has  said  of  it:  "It  has  always  seemed  to  me  that  when 
consideration  is  given  to  his  age,  his  training,  and  the  conditions 
under  which  his  work  was  done,  this  early  paper  gives  a  better 
measure  of  Rowland's  genius  than  almost  any  performance  of 
his  riper  years."  It  was  this  work  that  led  to  his  selection  in  1875 
to  be  the  first  professor  of  physics  in  the  Johns  Hopkins  University. 
The  story  has  been  well  told  by  President  Oilman  in  his  The 
Launching  of  a  University.  The  main  point  is  this,  that  after  a 
talk  with  General  Michie,  who  was  then  professor  of  physics  in 
the  United  States  Military  Academy,  Mr.  Oilman  telegraphed 
to  Rowland  to  meet  him  at  West  Point.  Mr.  Oilman  says:  "He 
came  at  once,  and  we  walked  up  and  down  Kosciusko's  Garden, 
talking  over  his  plans  and  ours.  He  told  me  in  detail  of  his  corre- 
spondence with  Maxwell,  and  I  think  he  showed  me  the  letters 
received  from  him.  At  any  rate,  it  was  obvious  that  I  was  in 
confidential  relations  with  a  young  man  of  rare  intellectual  powers 
and  of  uncommon  aptitude  for  experimental  science.  When  I 
reported  the  facts  to  the  trustees  in  Baltimore  they  said  at  once, 
'Engage  that  young  man  and  take  him  with  you  to  Europe,  where 
he  may  follow  the  leaders  in  his  science  and  be  ready  for  a  profes- 
sorship.' And  so  we  did.  His  subsequent  career  is  well  known." 

Rowland  decided  to  go  to  Berlin  to  get  in  contact  with  the 
great  physicist  Helmholtz.  Helmholtz  was  not  at  first  inclined 
to  receive  the  young  American  into  his  laboratory,  but  Rowland 
told  him  of  an  experiment  he  wanted  to  perform,  and  described 
the  method  he  proposed  to  follow,  and  he  was  admitted.  The 
object  of  the  experiment  was  to  learn  whether  any  magnetic 
effect  is  produced  when  an  electrically  charged  body  is  set  in 
rapid  motion.  Rowland  showed  that  there  is  an  effect  and  the 


412          LEADING  AMERICAN  MEN  OF  SCIENCE 

result  is  of  fundamental  importance  to  electrical  theory.    Maxwell, 
who  was  fond  of  versifying,  writes  in  regard  to  this  experiment: 

"The  mounted  disk  of  ebonite 

Has  whirled  before  nor  whirled  in  vain, 
Rowland  of  Troy,  that  doughty  knight, 

Convection  currents  did  obtain, 
In  such  a  disk,  of  power  to  wheedle 
From  its  loved  north  the  subtle  needle. 

Other  less  skilful  experimenters  have  failed  to  get  the  effect 
described  by  Rowland  but,  finally,  after  his  death,  it  was  shown 
beyond  a  question  that  he  was  right.  He  never  for  a  moment 
doubted  it. 

At  the  end  of  the  year  spent  in  Europe,  Rowland  came  to  Balti- 
more to  make  preparations  for  the  opening  of  the  university  in 
the  autumn  of  1876.  It  was  some  time  in  the  summer  that  he  made 
his  first  visit  to  the  city  that  was  to  be  his  home  for  the  next  twenty- 
five  years — the  rest  of  his  life.  On  this  occasion,  the  writer,  who 
had  been  appointed  professor  of  chemistry  on  the  same  day  that 
Rowland  had  been  appointed  professor  of  physics,  also  visited 
Baltimore,  and  the  two  who  were  to  be  so  long  and  so  intimately 
associated  met  for  the  first  time.  We  spent  a  few  very  hot  days  in 
talking  over  plans  with  President  Oilman.  It  was  arranged  that 
Rowland  was  to  have  for  his  laboratory  some  back  rooms  of  the 
two  dwelling-houses  which  were  to  serve  as  the  temporary  seat 
of  the  Johns  Hopkins  University.  He  said,  "  All  I  want  is  the  back 
kitchen  and  a  solid  pier  built  up  from  the  ground."  He  got  in 
fact  a  number  of  small  rooms  but  they  were  a  sorry  lot.  Such 
changes  as  he  asked  for  were  made.  While  in  Europe  he  had 
ordered  apparatus  freely — the  best  that  could  be  had — not  for 
lecture  experiments,  but  for  scientific  work  of  the  greatest  refine- 
ment and  importance.  The  equipment  of  the  " laboratory"  was 
all  that  could  be  desired — all  that  was  desired  by  the  man  who  was 
to  work  in  it,  who  was  to  make  the  kitchen  and  the  "  back  building" 
famous. 

I  remember  that  first  meeting  very  clearly.     The  impression 


HENRY  AUGUSTUS  ROWLAND  413 

that  Rowland  made  on  me  was  not  favorable.  Knowing  that,  in 
the  natural  course  of  things,  we  were  to  be  thrown  much  together, 
I  could  not  help  wondering  whether  this  was  to  be  a  pleasant  or  an 
unpleasant  experience.  I  had  my  doubts.  We  were  both,  in 
those  days,  somewhat  high-strung.  It  soon  became  evident  that 
we  should  not  always  agree,  and  that  between  us  there  were  likely 
to  be  heated  conversations,  but  let  me  say  at  once  that  in  a  short 
time  we  came  to  know  each  other  as  well  as  two  men  can  know 
each  other,  and  for  twenty-five  years  we  were  intimate,  most  inti- 
mate, friends.  We  understood  each  other  and  were  ready  to  make 
such  allowances  as  must  always  be  made  between  friends  if  friend- 
ship is  to  continue.  Strangers  and  casual  acquaintances  had  a 
wrong  conception  of  Rowland.  This  is  easily  understood.  He 
was  apt  to  put  his  worst  foot  forward.  He  made  no  attempt  to 
conciliate — rather  the  contrary.  It  took  time  to  get  over  this  first 
impression,  but  those  who  knew  him  best  learned  that  he  had 
many  most  attractive  traits  of  character.  He  was  a  staunch 
friend,  incapable  of  anything  mean.  He  was  absolutely  sincere. 
He  was  generous  and  affectionate.  He  had  the  highest  ideals  and 
tried  earnestly  to  attain  them.  On  the  other  hand,  he  despised 
sham  and,  whenever  he  detected  it  he  did  not  hesitate  to  express 
his  opinion  in  strong  language — not  always  strictly  parliamentary. 
Indeed  it  must  be  said  that  he  appeared  to  derive  a  certain  amount 
of  pleasure  from  this  kind  of  activity,  and  he  no  doubt  often  gave 
offense  by  it.  He  was  a  merciless  critic,  and  no  doubt  the  world 
offered  him  abundant  opportunity  for  the  exercise  of  his  powers. 

But  let  us  now  return  to  Baltimore  where  Rowland  began  work 
on  the  foundations  of  the  Johns  Hopkins  University  in  the  autumn 
of  1876.  The  little  faculty  of  the  University  at  that  time  felt  that 
the  best  thing  they  could  do  was  to  lay  emphasis  on  graduate 
work  and  especially  on  research.  Rowland  had  this  in  mind  in 
ordering  apparatus  in  Europe,  and  in  a  short  time  he  had  probably 
the  best  collection  of  apparatus  for  research  in  America.  It  should 
be  said  here  that  the  policy  of  the  faculty  was,  in  fact,  the  policy 
of  President  Gilman.  We  all  agreed.  To  some  of  us,  probably  to 
all  the  younger  members,  the  President  said  repeatedly,  "Do  your 


4H         LEADING  AMERICAN  MEN  OF  SCIENCE 

best  work  whatever  it  may  be,"  and  no  body  of  workers  could  have 
been  more  free  to  work  out  their  own  salvation.  The  atmosphere 
was  exactly  suited  to  Rowland.  He  could  not  brook  restraint. 
He  had  to  do  things  in  his  own  way.  He  was  not  fitted  for  the 
ordinary  routine  duties  of  a  professor.  He  was  an  investigator, 
and  to  the  work  of  investigation  he  turned  at  once. 

He  soon  devised  a  method  for  the  redetermination  of  the 
Mechanical  Equivalent  of  Heat.  This  fundamental  constant 
had  been  determined  by  others.  Rumford  laid  the  foundation 
for  the  work  in  observations  made  in  boring  cannon  in  the  ordnance 
foundry  at  Munich,  Bavaria.  His  attention  was  arrested  by  the 
well-known  fact  that  the  metal  became  hot  in  consequence  of  the 
friction  caused  by  the  boring.  He  then  attempted  to  determine 
the  amount  of  heat  produced  by  a  certain  amount  of  work,  or  in 
other  words  to  determine  the  relation  between  the  amount  of 
work  done  and  the  amount  of  heat  evolved.  Joule  of  Manchester, 
much  later,  took  up  this  problem  and  with  the  aid  of  more  refined 
apparatus  and  methods  obtained  a  much  more  satisfactory  result. 
Rowland  used  a  modification  of  the  method  of  Rumford.  He 
obtained  a  figure  for  the  Mechanical  Equivalent  of  Heat  that 
differed  somewhat  from  those  obtained  by  his  predecessors  and 
for  twenty-five  years  this  has  stood  the  test  of  criticism.  While  he 
was  engaged  in  the  work  he  received  a  visit  from  a  well-known 
chemist.  After  Rowland  had  explained  what  he  was  doing  the 
visitor  asked  this  question:  "  Suppose  you  should  find  that  you 
get  the  same  result  as  Joule,  will  you  consider  that  you  have 
wasted  your  time?"  To  which  Rowland  replied,  "No.  If  my 
result  should  be  the  same  as  Joule's,  that  will  prove  that  Joule 
was  right." 

I  wish  I  had  a  picture  of  the  surroundings  in  which  this  impor- 
tant work  was  carried  on.  The  original  back  kitchen  was  not  ade- 
quate. It  happened  that  the  university  had  come  into  possession 
of  a  small  old  building  on  a  near  street.  This  had  been  used  as  a 
grocery  store.  In  the  rear  was  a  most  disreputable  looking  room, 
dirty,  small,  dilapidated.  Here  the  delicate  apparatus  was  set  up 
and  here  the  experiments  were  carried  on  day  by  day,  and  it  is 


HENRY  AUGUSTUS  ROWLAND  415 

certain  that  the  work  could  not  have  been  done  better  if  it  had 
been  done  in  a  palatial  laboratory.  The  remark  made  by  Garfield 
that  "  Mark  Hopkins  at  one  end  of  a  log  was  a  good  enough  college 
for  him"  might  be  appropriately  modified  to  suit  this  case,  " Row- 
land in  a  back  kitchen  is  a  good  enough  physical  laboratory  for 
the  highest  type  of  work." 

The  research  on  the  Mechanical  Equivalent  of  Heat  was  pub- 
lished in  full  by  the  American  Academy  of  Arts  and  Sciences,  the 
expense  of  publication  being  met  by  a  fund  established  by  Rum- 
ford,  and  in  this  connection  it  may  be  noted  that  this  same  Ameri- 
can Academy  awarded  the  Rumford  prize  to  Rowland.  Later, 
in  1 88 1,  the  article  describing  his  results  was  crowned  as  a  prize 
essay  by  the  Venetian  Institute. 

In  1 88 1  Rowland  was  appointed  a  delegate  of  the  United  States 
to  the  International  Electrical  Congress  that  met  at  Paris.  Realiz- 
ing the  importance  of  the  accurate  measurement  of  electrical 
quantities  he  made  a  thorough  study  of  the  fundamental  quantity, 
the  ohm.  This  work  was  afterward  repeated  and  extended  at  the 
request  of  the  United  States  Government.  The  results  are  of 
great  important  and  are  generally  accepted. 

Perhaps  the  best  known  achievement  of  Rowland  is  the  concave 
grating.  In  order  to  study  light  from  different  sources  it  is  neces- 
sary to  analyze  it.  This  is  most  readily  accomplished  by  means 
of  a  prism.  As  is  well  known  when  sunlight  is  allowed  to  pass 
through  a  prism  it  emerges  in  the  form  of  a  spectrum.  The 
white  light  of  the  sun  is  thus  shown  to  be  made  up  of  lights  of 
different  colors — the  well-known  colors  of  the  solar  spectrum. 
Now  every  light  has  its  own  characteristic  spectrum,  and  by 
observing  the  spectrum  much  can  be  learned  in  regard  to  the 
nature  of  the  source  of  the  light.  By  such  observations,  for  ex- 
ample, it  is  possible  to  tell  what  chemical  elements  occur  in  the 
atmosphere  of  the  sun  and  of  the  fixed  stars.  Light  can  be  ana- 
lyzed also  by  allowing  it  to  fall  upon  a  surface  upon  which  a  large 
number  of  parallel  lines  have  been  ruled  very  close  together.  Such 
plates  are  called  diffraction  gratings.  Rowland  felt  that  much 
progress  could  be  made  in  this  line  of  work  if  only  larger  and  more 


416         LEADING  AMERICAN  MEN  OF  SCIENCE 

satisfactory  gratings  could  be  made,  and  he  set  himself  to  work  at 
this  problem.  In  order  to  get  good  gratings  a  screw  as  nearly 
perfect  as  possible  must  be  made.  But  to  make  such  a  screw  is 
an  extremely  difficult  matter.  By  a  simple  and  ingenious  device 
the  difficulties  were  largely  overcome  and,  with  the  aid  of  the 
historic  screw  which  resulted,  gratings  far  superior  to  any  that 
had  previously  been  known  were  made.  By  the  motion  of  the 
screw  the  plate  which  rested  upon  it  was  moved  slowly  and  regu- 
larly forward  while  a  diamond  point  moved  across  its  surface. 
The  first  gratings  made  were  plane,  but  soon  it  occurred  to  the 
inventor  that,  if  the  lines  should  be  ruled  upon  a  concave  surface, 
it  would  be  possible  to  photograph  spectra  directly  without  the 
use  of  prisms  and  lenses  and  with  much  better  results  in  every 
way.  I  happened  to  be  with  Rowland  when  the  idea  of  the  con- 
cave grating  occurred  to  him.  We  were  on  our  way  from  Balti- 
more to  Washington  to  attend  a  meeting  of  the  National  Academy 
of  Sciences.  He  was  very  quiet  and  we  sat  together  almost  the 
whole  way  without  a  word  passing  between  us.  This,  however, 
was  not  unusual.  We  talked  when  we  wanted  to  and,  as  often 
happened,  we  didn't  want  to.  Well,  in  this  instance  I  think  I 
noticed  that  my  friend  was  brooding  more  intently  than  usual. 
Just  before  we  reached  Washington  he  threw  up  his  hands  and 
said,  "It  will  work.  I'm  sure  of  it."  These  words  were  not 
addressed  to  me  but  to  space.  I  naturally  wanted  to  know  what 
he  was  talking  about,  but  at  first  he  could  not  bring  himself  to 
explain.  Presently,  however,  he  told  me  that  he  intended  to  go 
back  at  once  to  Baltimore  to  make  preparations  for  ruling 
gratings  on  concave  plates.  He  was  positive  he  could  do  it  and 
he  saw  at  once  the  great  advantages  of  this  form  of  apparatus. 
My  recollection  is  that  he  gave  up  the  meeting  of  the  National 
Academy  and  returned  on  the  next  train  to  Baltimore.  At  all 
events,  it  was  not  long  before  the  first  concave  grating  was  ready 
for  use  and  Rowland's  maps  of  the  solar  spectrum  in  course  of 
preparation.  In  a  notice  of  his  work  recently  written  by  a  leading 
English  physicist  reference  is  made  to  the  maps  in  these  words: 
"The  beautiful  maps  issued  at  a  later  date  by  Rowland,  .  .  . 


HENRY  AUGUSTUS  ROWLAND  417 

are  striking  evidences  of  the  value  of  the  grating;  the  additions  to 
our  knowledge  arising  from  this  one  discovery  are  already  enor- 
mous; much  has  been  achieved  which,  without  it,  would  have 
been  impossible." 

When  he  went  to  Paris  in  1881  he  took  some  of  his  photographs 
and  gratings  with  him.  In  a  letter  to  President  Oilman,  Professor 
John  Trowbridge  of  Harvard  gives  an  interesting  account  of 
Rowland's  reception.  A  part  of  that  letter  should  be  quoted  here: 

"Rowland  invited  Mascart,  Sir  W.  Thomson,  Wiedemann,  Ros- 
setti,  and  Kohlrausch  to  his  room  at  the  Hotel  Continental  in 
Paris,  and  showed  them  his  photographs  and  gratings.  It  is  need- 
less to  say  that  they  were  astonished.  Mascart  kept  muttering 
'Superbe' — ' Magnifique.'  The  Germans  spread  their  palms  and 
looked  as  if  they  wished  they  had  ventral  fins  and  tails  to  express 
their  sentiments.  Sir  W.  Thomson  evidently  knew  very  little 
about  the  subject,  and  maintained  a  wholesome  reticence,  but 
looked  his  admiration  for  he  knows  a  good  thing  when  he  sees  it, 
and  also  had  the  look  that  he  could  express  himself  upon  the  whole 
subject  in  fifteen  minutes,  when  he  got  back  to  Glasgow. 

"In  England,  Rowland's  success  was  better  appreciated,  if 
possible,  than  in  Paris.  He  read  a  paper  before  a  very  full  meet- 
ing of  the  Physical  Society — De  la  Rive,  Professor  Dewar  of 
Cambridge  Professor  Clifton  of  Oxford,  Professor  Adams  (of 
Leverrier  fame),  Professor  Carey  Foster,  Hilger,  the  optician, 
Professor  Guthrie,  and  other  noted  men  being  present.  I  was 
delighted  to  see  his  success.  The  English  men  of  science  were 
actually  dumbfounded.  Rowland  spoke  extremely  well,  for  he 
was  full  of  his  subject,  and  his  dry  humor  was  much  appreciated 
by  his  English  audience.  When  he  said  that  he  could  do  as  much 
in  an  hour  as  had  hitherto  been  accomplished  in  three  years,  there 
was  a  sigh  of  astonishment  and  then  cries  of  'Hear!  Hear!'  Pro- 
fessor Dewar  arose  and  said:  'We  have  heard  from  Professor  Row- 
land that  he  can  do  as  much  in  an  hour  as  has  been  done  hitherto 
in  three  years.  I  struggle  with  a  very  mixed  feeling  of  elation  and 
depression:  elation  for  the  wonderful  gain  to  science;  and  depres- 
sion for  myself,  for  I  have  been  at  work  for  three  years  in  mapping 
the  ultra  violet. '  De  la  Rive  asked  how  many  lines  could  be  ruled 
by  Rowland.  The  latter  replied:  'I  have  ruled  43,000  to  the  inch, 
and  I  can  rule  1,000,000  to  the  inch,  but  what  would  be  the  use? 
No  one  would  ever  know  that  I  had  really  done  it.'  Laughter 
greeted  this  sally.  The  young  American  was  like  the  Yosemite, 


418          LEADING  AMERICAN  MEN  OF  SCIENCE 

Niagara,  Pullman  palace  car — far  ahead  of  anything  in  England. 
Professor  Clifton  referred  in  glowing  terms  to  the  wonderful  instru- 
ment that  had  been  put  into  the  hands  of  physicists,  and  spoke  of 
the  beautiful  geometrical  demonstrations  of  Rowland  Professor 
Dewar  said  that  Johns  Hopkins  University  had  done  great  things 
for  science,  and  that  greater  achievements  would  be  expected  of  it. 
Captain  Abney  wrote  a  letter  which  Rowland  ought  to  show  you, 
for,  after  having  been  read  at  the  meeting,  it  was  given  to  him." 

What  about  Rowland  as  a  teacher?  It  has  already  been  said 
that  he  was  not  well  fitted  for  the  routine  work  of  a  routine  pro- 
fessor. He  would  not  have  made  a  good  college  professor.  This 
is  not  intended  as  a  reflection  upon  the  good  college  professor 
who  in  my  opinion  is  a  very  good  and  useful  man.  Nor  is  it  in- 
tended as  a  reflection  upon  Rowland.  He  was  cut  out  for  other 
work.  In  one  sense  he  was  one  of  the  best  and  most  successful 
teachers  ever  connected  with  the  Johns  Hopkins  University.  No 
teacher  of  physics  in  this  country  has  ever  trained  as  many  men 
who  have  risen  to  places  of  importance  and  influence.  He  cared 
little  for  those  who  had  not  the  desire  to  learn.  That  was  the  first 
condition  to  be  satisfied.  He  cared  little  for  the  dullard  or  the 
clumsy.  He  could  tell  whether  the  student  he  was  dealing  with 
had  anything  in  him.  If  he  had  not,  he  would  not  "waste  his  time 
over  him"  as  he  expressed  it.  But  let  him  show  promise  and 
there  could  be  no  better  guide  and  friend  than  Rowland.  All  his 
students  respected  him.  Of  course  they  did.  His  assistants  also. 
They  could  not  help  it.  Sometimes  he  was  a  little  harsh  in  his 
treatment  of  his  assistants,  but  they  knew  that  at  heart  their  chief 
was  true  and  they  always  stood  loyally  by  him  in  spite  of  occasional 
provocations.  He  owed  much  to  his  assistants  and  he  was  always 
ready  to  acknowledge  his  debt.  They  relieved  him  of  many  duties 
that  were  distasteful  to  him  and,  although  he  was  the  director  of 
the  laboratory,  much  of  the  work  of  directing  fell  to  their  hands. 
And  they  did  not  murmur,  for  they  knew  that  in  this  way  they 
were  contributing  to  the  success  of  his  work. 

He  lectured  regularly  on  such  subjects  as  he  thought  ought  to 
be  presented  to  the  students,  and  often  in  these  lectures  made 
valuable  suggestions  for  researches.  One  of  them  being  taken  up 


HENRY  AUGUSTUS  ROWLAND  419 

led  to  the  discovery  of  the  Hall  "effect."  The  student  who  did 
this  work  is  now  Professor  Hall  of  Harvard.  He  did  not  follow  up 
his  students  and  they  did  not  therefore  acquire  the  bad  habit 
of  relying  upon  him  for  daily  advice.  On  the  contrary,  he 
would  give  them  just  enough  suggestion  to  get  them  started 
and  then,  to  use  his  own  words,  "neglected  them"  so  that  they 
were  obliged  to  cultivate  self-reliance  or  fail.  The  treatment 
was  not  adapted  to  the  weak  but  was  admirably  suited  to  the 
strong.  One  of  his  most  distinguished  students  writes: 

"Even  of  the  more  advanced  students  only  those  who  were  able 
to  brook  severe  and  searching  criticism  reaped  the  full  benefit  of 
being  under  him;  but  he  contributed  that  which,  in  a  university, 
is  above  all  teaching  of  routine,  the  spectacle  of  scientific  work 
thoroughly  done  and  the  example  of  a  lofty  ideal." 

His  lectures  were  not  eloquent.  Words  did  not  come  freely  to 
him.  There  was  a  lack  of  finish  and  elegance  in  his  talks,  but,  on 
the  other  hand,  he  could  say  forcibly  and  clearly  what  he  wanted 
to  say.  There  could  be  no  doubt  as  to  his  meaning.  Whatever 
subject  he  happened  to  be  lecturing  upon  the  subject  that  was 
uppermost  in  his  mind  at  the  time  would  be  sure  to  come  to  the 
front.  For  example,  he  once  undertook  to  build  a  sail-boat  and 
became  much  interested  in  water-waves,  and  the  part  they  play 
in  determining  the  speed  of  a  boat.  It  is  said  that  during  this 
period  there  were  daily  references  to  water-waves  in  his  lectures, 
and,  occasionally,  as  he  told  me,  when,  for  one  reason  or  another, 
he  was  not  well  prepared  on  his  subject  proper  he  would  take  up 
the  hour  by  discussing  the  subject  of  sail-boats  in  a  scientific  way — 
no  doubt  to  the  advantage  of  his  hearers.  In  some  of  his  few  ad- 
dresses of  a  semi-public  character  there  are  passages  that  deserve 
to  be  remembered.  Generally  speaking  these  addresses  made  an 
unusually  strong  impression.  Let  me  quote  from  one.  He  says: 

"But  for  myself,  I  value  in  a  scientific  mind  most  of  all  that  love 
of  truth,  that  care  in  its  pursuit,  and  that  humility  of  mind  which 
makes  the  possibility  of  error  always  present  more  than  any  other 
quality.  This  is  the  mind  which  has  built  up  modern  science  to 
its  present  perfection,  which  has  laid  one  stone  upon  the  other  with 


420          LEADING  AMERICAN  MEN  OF  SCIENCE 

such  care  that  it  to-day  offers  to  the  world  the  most  complete 
monument  to  human  reason.  This  is  the  mind  which  is  destined 
to  govern  the  world  in  the  future  and  to  solve  the  problems  pertain- 
ing to  politics  and  humanity  as  well  as  to  inanimate  nature. 

"It  is  the  only  mind  which  appreciates  the  imperfections  of  the 
human  reason  and  is  thus  careful  to  guard  against  them.  It  is 
the  only  mind  that  values  the  truth  as  it  should  be  valued  and 
ignores  all  personal  feeling  in  its  pursuit.  And  this  is  the  mind 
the  physical  laboratory  is  built  to  cultivate." 

This  passage  is  thoroughly  characteristic  of  Rowland  in  form 
and  substance.  He  felt,  and  felt  intensely  as  usual,  that  natural 
science  was  the  only  subject  really  worthy  of  study  except  in  so 
far  as  study  of  other  subjects  might  contribute  to  the  advance- 
ment of  science.  He  retained  to  the  end  his  abhorrence  of  the 
ancient  languages  and  would  not  listen  to  arguments  in  their 
favor.  He  could  not  understand  how  anyone  could  spend  his  life 
in  studying  them.  He  could  not  understand  how  their  study 
could  be  of  the  slightest  benefit  to  the  world.  He  was  entirely 
sincere  in  this.  He  was  incapable  of  insincerity.  It  must  be 
acknowledged  that  this  was  his  blind  side.  But  why  complain? 
A  man  who  has  the  keenness  of  vision  possessed  by  Rowland  can 
afford  to  have  a  blind  side,  and  the  world  can  afford  to  be  blind 
to  the  imperfection. 

Though  the  man  has  been  revealed  to  some  extent  in  what  has 
already  been  said,  there  are  some  traits  which  have  not  been 
touched  upon.  He  was  tall  and  lithe  and  quick  in  motion.  His 
head  would  attract  attention  anywhere  on  account  of  the  size  of 
the  brain  above  the  ears  and  the  size  and  strength  of  the  lower 
jaw.  Withal  it  was  a  head  of  refinement.  His  face  had  an  intent 
expression  which  was  increased  by  his  near-sightedness.  Probably 
his  expression  would  have  been  described  as  severe  by  those  who 
did  not  know  him  well.  It  was  a  masterful  expression  and  was 
therefore  a  true  index  of  his  character. 

In  1890  he  married  Miss  Henrietta  Harrison  of  Baltimore. 
The  marriage  was  an  unusually  happy  one.  Of  the  three  children 
of  this  marriage  two  are  boys  and  one  a  girl.  It  is  perhaps  too 
early  to  speak  with  confidence  of  the  future  of  these  children.  The 


HENRY  AUGUSTUS  ROWLAND  421 

older  son,  named  Henry,  seems  to  have  inherited  his  father's 
tastes.  Whether  he  has  inherited  the  mental  power  and  the 
strength  that  are  necessary  to  make  another  Rowland,  no  one  can 
tell. 

Outside  of  the  laboratory  he  had  many  interests.  He  was 
devoted  to  his  family,  and  was  very  happy  in  the  home  circle. 
The  depth  of  his  affection  was  evident  to  those  who  knew 
him  well,  and  it  was  evident  to  many  who  did  not  know  him  well 
and  who  considered  him  cold  and  austere.  His  conduct  seemed 
incongruous.  The  matter  becomes  clear,  however,  if  we  take  the 
only  correct  view  of  it.  He  was  undoubtedly  capable  of  all  the 
finer  feelings.  His  affection  was  true  and  deep,  but  he  was  ex- 
tremely critical  and  he  could,  of  course,  easily  find  something  to 
criticise.  Having  found  it  he  expressed  his  opinion  vigorously 
and  with  little  regard  for  the  feeling  of  his  victim.  As  has  been 
said  before  in  this  article  he  was  apt  to  put  his  worst  foot  forward, 
and  many  did  not  wait  or  did  not  have  the  opportunity  to  see  the 
other  and  better  one.  He  had  many  friends,  but  few  intimates. 
A  friend,  Professor  Mendenhall,  who  has  written  an  admirable 
account  of  Rowland  says: 

"His  criticisms  of  the  work  of  others  were  keen  and  merciless, 
and  sometimes  there  remained  a  sting  of  which  he  himself  had 
not  the  slightest  suspicion.  'I  would  not  have  done  it  for  the 
world,'  he  once  said  to  me  after  being  told  that  his  pitiless  criticism 
of  a  scientific  paper  had  wounded  the  feelings  of  its  author.  As 
a  matter  of  fact  he  was  warm-hearted  and  generous,  and  his 
occasionally  seeming  otherwise  was  due  to  the  complete  separation, 
in  his  own  mind,  of  the  product  and  the  personality  of  the  author. 
He  possessed  that  rare  power,  habit  in  his  case,  of  seeing  himself, 
not  as  others  see  him,  but  as  he  saw  others.  He  looked  at  him- 
self and  his  own  work  exactly  as  if  he  had  been  another  person, 
and  this  gave  rise  to  a  frankness  of  expression  regarding  his  own 
performance  which  sometimes  impressed  strangers  unpleasantly, 
but  which,  to  his  friends,  was  one  of  his  most  charming  qualities." 

He  read  a  good  deal.  In  early  life  history  interested  him  very 
much.  He  was  fond  of  poetry  in  some  forms,  but  he  confined  his 
attention  to  a  few  authors.  In  his  later  years,  however,  he  became 


422          LEADING  AMERICAN  MEN  OF  SCIENCE 

more  and  more  absorbed  in  scientific  subjects,  and  his  interest  in 
general  literature  became  less.  He  retained,  however,  his  fond- 
ness for  music.  He  rarely  failed  to  attend  the  concerts  of  the 
Boston  Symphony  Orchestra.  Classical  music  was  his  principal 
hobby  in  this  line.  This  is  hard  to  understand  in  view  of  the  fact 
that  he  had  not  a  musical  ear.  He  could  not  whistle  nor  hum  the 
simplest  air  in  tune. 

Rowland  inherited  a  love  of  sports  from  his  father.  His  special- 
ties were  fishing,  sailing,  and  horseback  riding.  The  only  kind 
of  fishing  that  appealed  to  him  was  trout-fishing.  I  have  had 
abundant  opportunity  to  become  acquainted  with  his  skill,  for 
summer  after  summer  we  have  gone  off  together  in  pursuit  of 
this  delightful  fish  and  of  the  joys  of  nature  that  its  pursuit  brings 
with  it.  His  tackle  was  always  in  good  trim,  and  he  seemed  to  have 
an  instinct  that  guided  him  aright  while  I  was  bungling  along  in 
the  ordinary  human  way.  He  could  cast  a  fly  most  enticingly. 
He  never  failed  to  get  more  and  bigger  fish  than  I,  unless,  as  some- 
times happened  the  fish  were  guilty  of  contributory  negligence. 
In  short,  Rowland  as  a  fisherman  showed  the  same  traits  as  Row- 
land the  physicist, — intelligence,  skill,  patience,  perseverance.  It 
is  further  of  interest  to  note  that  those  fishing  trips  always  brought 
the  memory  of  his  father  clearly  back  to  him.  Some  of  the  tackle 
he  used  had  been  used  by  his  father,  and  often  he  found  occasion 
to  quote  his  father's  counsel  in  matters  pertaining  to  the  art  of 
fishing. 

After  his  marriage,  the  fishing  trips  were  given  up  and  sailing 
took  its  place.  He  had  practiced  this  art  early  and  was  passionately 
fond  of  it  throughout  life.  He  had  a  small  sloop  built  in  Balti- 
more according  to  his  own  design.  It  was  taken  from  Baltimore 
to  Mt.  Desert  with  the  aid  of  a  professional  skipper.  In  this  boat 
that  had  accommodations  for  only  two,  he  and  I  have  cruised  up 
and  down  the  coast  of  Maine  from  Rockland  to  Eastport  in  all 
sorts  of  weather.  We  did  all  the  work,  prepared  our  own  meals  as 
far  as  they  were  prepared,  and  made  our  own  beds  as  far  as  they 
were  made.  He  had  the  reputation  of  being  a  reckless  sailor  and 
the  people  of  Mt.  Desert  expected  him  to  get  in  trouble.  But  he 


HENRY  AUGUSTUS  ROWLAND  423 

never  did.  In  my  opinion,  and  no  one  had  as  good  opportunity 
to  judge,  he  was  a  skilful  and  careful  sailor.  He  knew  what  his 
boat  could  do,  and  he  never  took  chances,  when  I  was  with  him 
at  least,  and  we  never  got  into  trouble. 

He  had  learned  sailing  without  much  aid  from  others,  and  was 
singularly  ignorant  of  the  technical  terms.  He  told  me  that  he 
could  never  remember  which  was  starboard  and  which  port.  I 
had  acquired  this  elementary  knowledge  and  was  rather  proud  to 
be  able  to  tell  him.  Whereupon  he  put  an  "  S  "  on  one  side  of  the 
cockpit  and  a  "P"  on  the  other.  But  in  spite  of  this  constant 
reminder  I  am  quite  sure  that  with  his  eyes  shut  he  could  not  have 
told  which  side  "S"  was  on.  And  so  with  pennants.  He  never 
provided  himself  with  them,  because,  as  he  said,  "I  don't  know 
how  to  use  them."  Another  peculiarity  is  the  fact  that  his  boat 
never  had  a  name.  He  spoke  of  her  as  the  " Spectrum,"  but  that 
name  did  not  appear  on  her.  The  essential  thing  to  him  was  the 
boat.  The  boat  was  just  as  good  without  as  with  a  name,  and  he 
got  just  as  much  fun  out  of  the  sailing  without  a  knowledge  of 
the  lingo  and  the  frills  as  with. 

I  have  left  the  riding  to  the  last,  though  it  played  a  more  im- 
portant part  in  his  life  than  either  fishing  or  sailing.  He  took  up 
riding  after  he  came  to  Baltimore  and  never  became  as  expert  at 
it  as  at  these.  He  was  not  graceful  in  his  movements  and  was  not 
a  graceful  rider.  He  seemed,  however,  to  catch  the  essentials  and 
soon  he  was  known  as  a  fearless  and  skilful  rider.  He  joined  the 
hunting  club  of  Baltimore  and  for  years  rarely  missed  a  meet. 
On  one  occasion  in  the  early  period  of  his  history  as  a  rider,  he 
entered  himself  and  horse  as  a  competitor  in  a  "gentleman's 
steeple  chase."  It  was  a  difficult  race.  He  won.  I  drove  him 
out  and  back.  His  success  gave  him  great  satisfaction.  As  he 
was  near-sighted  and  always  wore  eye-glasses  he  sometimes  got 
into  difficulty  in  riding  through  woods,  but  neither  he  nor  his 
horse  was  ever  seriously  hurt.  His  passion  for  riding  after  the 
hounds  is  well  illustrated  by  an  experience  he  had  in  England  of 
which  Professor  Trowbridge  tells  in  the  letter  already  referred  to: 
"I  introduced  Rowland  to  a  fox-hunting  gentleman,  an  old  acquain- 


424         LEADING  AMERICAN  MEN  OF  SCIENCE 

tance  of  mine,  and  I  imagine  Rowland  got  enough  of  English 
fox-hunting,  for  on  my  return  from  Birmingham,  one  evening,  I 
found  him  stretched  on  the  bed,  a  symphony  in  brown  and  red 
mud,  his  once  glossy  hat  crushed  into  nothingness,  his  top-boots, 
once  so  new,  a  mass  of  Warwickshire  mud.  He  dryly  remarked 
that  he  guessed  there  wouldn't  be  any  trouble  about  getting  his 
hunting-suit  through  the  custom-house  now.  He  came  very  near 
breaking  his  neck,  having  been  thrown  on  his  head  before  he 
'could  calculate  his  orbit,'  as  he  remarked."  In  the  last  years 
of  his  life  he  rode  regularly  though  not  after  the  hounds.  He  felt 
the  importance  of  outdoor  exercise  for  his  health,  and  fortunately 
he  enjoyed  it.  He  did  not  care  to  ride  in  the  park  or  along  the 
broad  frequented  roads.  Cross-country  was  his  preference.  At 
one  period  I  rode  with  him  daily,  and  learned  more  about  riding 
than  I  had  learned  in  all  my  previous  existence.  He  had  his 
doubts  as  to  my  ability  to  do  some  of  the  things  he  wanted  to  do. 
It  must  be  confessed  that  I  had  my  own  doubts.  Once  we  were 
flying  along  through  the  woods  when  with  little  warning  we  came 
upon  what  appeared  to  me  a  preternaturally  and  unnecessarily 
wide  ditch.  Without  a  moment's  hesitation  his  horse  made  the 
leap.  Mine  followed  and  by  good  fortune  I  retained  my  seat  and 
looked  comfortable  on  the  other  side.  Rowland  turned  to  me  and 
said  simply:  "Remsen,  my  respect  for  you  has  gone  up."  On 
another  occasion  my  horse  refused  a  fence  which  his  had  taken 
nicely.  I  tried  it  a  second  time  without  success  and  was  about  to 
give  it  up  when  Rowland  called  out:  "Don't  spoil  the  horse. 
Make  him  take  it."  He  took  it — in  time. 

One  of  his  greatest  pleasures  in  life  was  his  annual  visit  to  his 
country  home  at  Seal  Harbor,  Mt.  Desert,  Maine.  Some  years 
ago  he  bought  a  small  piece  of  ground  on  a  rocky  hill  with  a  mag- 
nificent view  and  on  it  he  built  a  comfortable,  modest  house.  Here 
he  went  every  summer  with  his  family,  and  spent  most  of  his  time 
out  of  doors  either  sailing  or  walking,  though  he  was  not  over  fond 
of  walking  unless  he  wanted  to  get  somewhere.  For  twelve  or 
more  years  he  knew  that  he  had  an  incurable  disease  and  that  his 
life  could  not  be  a  long  one.  This  was  one  reason,  perhaps  the 


HENRY  AUGUSTUS  ROWLAND  425 

principal  one,  why  he  gave  so  much  time  to  exercise  in  the  open 
air.  This  led  him  also  to  read  a  good  deal  on  medical  subjects, 
and  especially  on  anything  pertaining  to  his  own  malady.  We 
often  talked  of  this,  but  I  never  heard  him  repine.  He  accepted 
his  fate  cheerfully  though  he  felt  keenly  the  fact  that  his  family 
would  not  be  adequately  provided  for,  and  this  caused  him  during 
the  last  few  years  of  his  life  to  give  much  time  to  working  out  a 
beautiful  and  important  system  of  telegraphy.  The  Rowland 
octoplex  printing  telegraph  has  since  became  widely  known  and 
is  in  use  in  some  places.  By  this  system  it  is  possible  to  send 
simultaneously  four  messages  in  both  directions  over  a  single 
wire  and  have  them  appear  printed.  The  sending  is  accomplished 
by  means  of  an  apparatus  that  looks  and  works  like  an  ordinary 
type- writer.  It  is  a  wonderful  machine.  At  the  last  Paris  Exhibi- 
tion it  won  the  Grand  Prix. 

In  politics  he  was  too  radical  to  be  effective.  His  ideals  were 
so  high  as  to  be  practically  unattainable.  Consequently  he  was 
entirely  out  of  sympathy  with  the  existing  order  of  things.  He 
took  every  opportunity  to  tell  those  in  high  positions  what  he 
thought  of  them.  I  remember  being  at  a  dinner  party  one  evening, 
at  which  the  late  Mr.  James  G.  Elaine  and  Rowland  were  present. 
Now  in  the  mind  of  Rowland,  the  idea  of  protection  of  industries 
was  as  a  red,  extremely  red,  flag  to  an  active  bull.  In  this  particu- 
lar case  Mr.  Elaine  represented  the  obnoxious  idea  and  Rowland 
straightway  charged  upon  him  in  dead  earnest.  If  the  object  of 
his  antipathy  had  responded  in  kind,  the  scene  would  have  been 
exciting  in  the  highest  degree.  But  he  did  not.  I  do  not  remember 
how  it  happened,  but  in  a  few  minutes  the  atmosphere  was  clear 
and  the  company  began  to  breathe  freely  again.  When  the  party 
broke  up  Elaine  walked  away  with  his  arm  thrown  over  Rowland's 
shoulders.  A  little  later  Rowland  said  to  me:  "That  Elaine  strikes 
me  as  a  pretty  good  fellow." 

In  matters  pertaining  to  religion  he  was  philosophic,  not 
emotional.  He  accepted  the  underlying  principles  of  the  Chris- 
tian religion  and  in  general  his  life  was  in  conformity  therewith. 
He  lived  correctly  not  because  he  feared  punishment  hereafter, 


426         LEADING  AMERICAN  MEN  OF  SCIENCE 

not  because  he  had  been  commanded  to,  but  because  he  clearly 
saw  that  this  was  the  right  thing  to  do.  He  was  as  free  from  any- 
thing that  could  fairly  be  called  sin  as  anyone  I  have  ever  known. 

Rowland  received  many  honors  from  learned  societies  and  uni- 
versities at  home  and  abroad.  He  was  Honorary  Member  of 
the  Royal  Society  of  London,  of  the  Royal  Society  of  Edinburgh, 
of  the  Royal  Academy  of  Sciences,  Berlin,  of  the  Cambridge 
Philosophical  Society,  of  the  Physical  Society  of  London;  Corre- 
sponding Member  of  the  Royal  Society  of  Gb'ttingen,  of  the  Acad- 
emy of  Sciences  in  Paris;  Foreign  Member  of  the  Royal  Swedish 
Academy  of  Stockholm;  Associate  Fellow  of  the  American  Acad- 
emy of  Arts  and  Sciences;  Member  of  the  National  Academy  of 
Sciences;  and  a  member  of  nine  other  learned  societies.  He  was 
awarded  the  Rumford  Medal  of  the  American  Academy  in  1884, 
the  Matteucci  Medal  in  1897.  He  received  the  Honorary  Degree 
of  Ph.D.  from  Johns  Hopkins  in  1880 — the  only  time  this  degree 
has  been  conferred  honoris  causa  by  Johns  Hopkins — and  the 
degree  of  LL.D.  from  Yale,  in  1895,  and  from  Princeton  in  1896. 
He  was  made  an  officer  of  the  Legion  of  Honor  in  1896. 


WILLIAM  KEITH  BROOKS 

ZOOLOGIST 

1848-1908 
BY  E.  A.  ANDREWS 

IN  the  history  of  zoology  in  America  the  advent  of  Louis  Agassiz 
may  be  taken  to  mark  a  transition  period  from  the  days  of  the  great 
pioneers,  Audubon,  Wilson  and  others,  who  revealed  the  marvels 
of  wild  life  in  a  new  country,  to  the  present  epoch  of  intensive 
investigation  of  problems  common  to  life  the  world  over. 

Of  those  who  came  in  the  footsteps  of  Agassiz  was  William  Keith 
Brooks  who  in  the  field  of  marine  zoology  added  to  the  pioneer 
work  of  explorer  his  own  philosophical  treatment  of  the  most 
fundamental  problems  of  life  and  linked  the  past  thought  of  the 
fathers  of  zoology  to  the  methods  of  investigation  not  possible 
until  now.  In  the  words  of  a  great  living  zoologist  and  president 
of  a  great  University,  "He  was  the  wisest  of  American  zoologists" 
and  "the  greatest  American  zoologist,  at  least  from  the  viewpoint 
of  philosophical  thinking."  In  his  life  we  find  much  of  his  great- 
ness due  to  Nature, — to  what  was  innate  in  him  and  much  to 
Nurture, — to  what  his  opportunities  brought  him. 

William  Keith  Brooks  was  born  in  Cleveland,  Ohio,  March 
25,  1848,  the  second  of  a  family  of  four  boys,  and  he  enjoyed  the 
helpful  home  life  found  in  a  relatively  new  country  where  his  father, 
Oliver  Allen  Brooks,  was  one  of  the  early  merchants,  having  come 
to  Cleveland  from  Burlington,  Vermont,  in  1835. 

His  mother,  a  refined  and  gentle  woman,  who  was  Ellenora 
Bradbury  Kingsley,  the  second  of  three  daughters,  the  only 
children  of  the  Reverend  Phinheas  Kingsley,  of  Rutland,  Vermont, 
died  when  the  boy  was  but  fourteen  years  old,  yet  we  may  ascribe 

427 


428          LEADING  AMERICAN  MEN  OF  SCIENCE 

to  her  one  of  the  most  powerful  elements  that  made  him  develop 
as  he  did.  Not  only  was  she  "a  lady  of  rare  qualities  and  keenly 
sympathetic  with  her  children's  dispositions"  so  that  she  trained 
him  in  his  early  years  of  greatest  plasticity  in  the  love  of  truth  that 
led  him  to  freedom,  but,  it  may  well  be  that  some  of  his  best  traits 
came  from  the  maternal  side  by  direct  inheritance.  For  William 
Keith  was  not  the  only  son  with  appreciation  of  the  ideal  and  the 
beautiful.  The  oldest,  Oliver  Kingsley  Brooks,  early  showed  an 
aptitude  for  art  and  was  one  of  the  first  students  and  a  very  pro- 
ficient one  in  the  Cleveland  School  of  Art.  The  youngest,  Edward, 
has  shown  artistic  ability  of  a  high  order,  achieving  a  reputation 
as  an  original  designer  of  furniture  and  household  decorations. 
The  subject  of  this  sketch  did  not  take  instruction  in  drawing  till 
his  studies  in  zoology  led  him  to  the  need  of  illustrations,  when 
he  received  instruction  from  his  brother  Oliver,  nevertheless  in 
later  life  so  successful  was  he  in  making  ink  drawings  of  the 
marine  creatures  he  knew  so  well  that  a  Baltimore  artist  judged 
his  success  in  life  to  be  largely  due  to  his  artistic  skill.  This  taste 
for  drawing  came  by  inheritance  from  their  mother,  and  as  an 
index  of  clear  mental  images  this  was  no  mean  gift.  Both  the 
parents  of  William  Keith  Brooks  came  from  Vermont,  and  the 
following  account  will  show  a  sturdy  New  England  ancestry. 

Prior  to  1634  Thomas  Brooks  came  from  England  to  America 
and  settled  first  in  Watertown  and  then  in  Concord,  Massachusetts. 
John  Kingsley  came  from  Hampshire,  in  England,  and  settled  in 
Dorchester,  Massachusetts,  in,  or  before,  1638.  From  these  two 
early  settlers  came  the  families  that  united  as  the  parents  of  William 
Keith  Brooks. 

It  will  but  emphasize  his  puritanical  origin  to  enumerate  the 
ancestors  whose  biblical  names  recall  ideals  and  training  of  long 
ago.  On  the  Brooks  side  the  line  of  descent  from  Thomas  Brooks 
ran  through  Joshua,  through  Noah,  through  a  second  Joshua  the 
son  of  Noah,  and  through  a  third  Joshua,  who  all  lived  in  Con- 
cord, Massachusetts.  Their  simple  useful  lives  contained  little 
prophecy  of  the  time  when,  in  1907,  their  descendant,  one  Wil- 
liam Keith  Brooks,  LL.D.,  sought  relief  from  the  tedium  of 


WILLIAM  KEITH  BROOKS  429 

too  constant  attendance  upon  the  meetings  of  an  Interna- 
tional Zoological  Congress  to  take  a  trolley  trip  from  Boston 
to  Concord! 

A  fourth  Joshua  Brooks  served  at  the  battle  of  Concord,  but 
lived  at  Lincoln,  now  a  part  of  Concord,  Massachusetts.  His  son, 
the  fifth  and  last  Joshua  Brooks,  removed  from  Lincoln  to  Burling- 
ton, Vermont,  and  it  was  his  son,  Oliver  Allen  Brooks,  who  re- 
moved to  Cleveland,  Ohio,  after  the  family  had  been  but  so  short 
a  time  outside  the  bounds  of  Massachusetts. 

On  the  mother's  side  the  line  of  descent  ran  from  John  Kingsley 
through  Eldad  who  lived  in  Dorchester,  Massachusetts,  and  then 
through  three  men,  John,  Amos,  and  Isaiah  Kingsley,  who  repre- 
sented the  family  for  some  one  hundred  years  at  Windham, 
Connecticut.  The  next  in  descent,  Phinheas,  the  son  of  Isaiah 
Kingsley,  removed  when  ten  years  old,  with  his  father,  to  Vermont. 
But  here  again  the  family  remained  but  one  generation  in  this 
state,  for  the  second  Phinheas  Kingsley  removed  to  Ohio. 

Thus  on  one  side  seven,  and  on  the  other  six,  generations  lived 
in  Massachusetts  and  in  Connecticut  ill  a  brief  sojourn  in  Ver- 
mont led  them  on  to  Ohio  where  Ellenora  Bradbury  Kingsley 
and  Oliver  Allen  Brooks  became  the  parents  of  William  Keith 
Brooks. 

In  dearth  of  facts  one  may  speculate  that  some  of  the  excellencies 
that  were  given  birth  in  him  may  have  been  due  to  summation  of 
ancestral  traits  handed  on  by  the  Keith  family,  for  may  it  not  be 
significant  that  not  only  was  the  grandmother  of  William  Keith 
Brooks  on  his  mother's  side  a  Parnel  Keith,  who  was  born  in  1786, 
in  Massachusetts,  and  lived  to  the  age  of  82  years,  but  his  grand- 
mother on  the  paternal  side  was  a  Melinda  Keith,  of  Pittsford, 
Vermont,  born  in  1787.  It  was  this  name,  "Keith,"  that  was  to 
be  singled  out  by  his  best  friend  and  helper,  his  wife,  the  "woman 
who  understood,"  as  a  poet  has  it,  for  his  special  personal  name. 

The  boy  was  educated  in  the  Public  Schools  of  Cleveland, 
attending  a  grammar  school  known  as  the  Eagle  Street  School, 
and  after  that  going  to  the  Central  High  School,  when  fifteen,  for 
at  least  three  years.  Here  his  rank  was  from  80  to  100,  with 


430          LEADING  AMERICAN  MEN  OF  SCIENCE 

highest  standing  in  Latin,  Rhetoric,  English  Composition,  and 
Botany.  The  Principal  and  the  Vice-Principal  of  the  school  were 
then  Dr.  Theodore  Sterling  and  Sidney  A.  Norton,  and  in  talking 
over  the  influences  that  had  molded  his  life,  Professor  Brooks, 
when  fifty  years  old,  emphasized  his  debt  of  gratitude  to  the  earnest 
and  broad-minded  teachers  in  the  Public  Schools  of  Cleveland. 

But  powerful  as  were  the  home  influences  and  the  school  train- 
ing there  seems  to  have  been  an  innate  searching  for  truth  that  led 
the  quiet,  reticent,  "shy,"  gentle,  thoughtful  child  to  make  original 
observation  and  to  look  at  many  things  from  unusual  points  of 
view.  He  was  not  satisfied  with  the  obvious  or  conventional 
explanation:  his  mind  was  unusual.  Thus  to  a  teacher  who  asked 
him,  "If  the  third  of  six,  be  three,  what  would  the  fourth  of 
twenty  be?"  he  replied,  "Five" — for,  said  he,  "I  don't  see  that 
altering  the  value  of  six  alters  the  value  of  twenty." 

His  interest  in  natural  history  was  that  of  the  normal  child,  an 
interest  in  actions  and  in  life  and  not  in  the  collection  of  curious 
objects.  But  while  he  was  no  born  naturalist  in  the  sense  that 
some  are,  who  early  learn  to  hoard  up  "specimens,"  he  was  fond 
of  observing  birds,  and  a  back-yard  pond  as  well  as  home-made 
aquaria  served  for  delightful  observations  that  left  a  lasting 
impress. 

Passenger  pigeons  were  then  plentiful,  myriads  darkening  the 
sky,  and  stray  ones  came  to  the  pond  to  drink.  Then  there  were 
the  aquatic  insects  and  snails  with  marvelous  transformation  and 
developments.  The  fundamental  nature  of  reflex  and  mechanical 
acts  in  living  things  was  indelibly  learned  by  the  sight  of  a  dragon- 
fly that,  though  reduced  by  accident  to  little  but  head,  still  con- 
tinued to  eat  what  was  set  before  it,  though  the  food  passed  at  once 
into  empty  air. 

His  father  was  a  practical  man  who  believed  in  all  kinds  of 
wholesome  recreation  for  his  boys,  but  was  not  himself  given  to 
scientific  interests.  In  the  neighborhood,  however,  were  boys 
who  collected  insects,  fossils,  the  then  common  Indian  remains, 
shells  and  other  objects.  In  fact  in  the  yard  of  the  Tuttle  boys, 
their  father  had  built  them  a  frame  structure  they  called  the 


WILLIAM  KEITH  BROOKS  431 

"Museum"  and  the  " Laboratory,"  and  in  it  they  did  simple 
chemical  and  electrical  " stunts"  and  kept  their  collections.  Some 
of  these  older  boys  helped  make  the  artificial  pond  in  Brooks' 
yard  and  went  there  to  sail  their  hand-long  "yachts."  All  who 
had  any  bent  toward  natural  history  owed  a  lasting  debt  to  the 
old-fashioned,  all-round  naturalist  and  leading  physician,  Dr. 
Kirtland,  who  had  a  real  knowledge  of  the  habits  and  lives  of 
birds,  bees,  fishes  and  of  flowers  and  was  never  tired  of  stimulating 
and  aiding  any  youngster  who  showed  a  real  interest  in  such  things. 
They  all  loved  and  reverenced  him,  though  some  might  make 
forays  upon  the  fossil-collections  in  his  barn. 

One  whom  he  must  have  looked  up  to  in  natural  history  interest, 
as  friend  of  his  elder  brother,  and  also,  by  chance,  his  Sunday 
School  teacher  at  St.  Paul's  Episcopal  Church,  was  Albert  H. 
Tuttle,  now  Professor  of  Biology  in  the  University  of  Virginia. 
From  his  attendance  upon  this  church  and  his  docile  and  con- 
scientious learning  of  Sunday  School  verses  he  stored  up  an  ac- 
quaintance with  the  forms  of  theology  that  abided  with  him, 
though  he  rebelled  at  the  pressure  of  society  that  would  too  early 
force  upon  his  own  children  dogmas  he  wished  them  to  judge 
when  matured. 

For  good  physical  reasons  the  boy  was  not  given  to  violent 
athletic  sports,  though  winning  a  prize  for  excellence  in  calis- 
thenics, since  he  had  a  most  perfect  harmony  of  nerve  and  muscle 
and  a  strong  sense  of  form,  rhythm,  and  spacial  relations. 

He  early  read  the  works  of  Charles  Darwin  and  gained  an 
abiding  conviction  of  the  impregnable  nature  of  the  evidence  for 
evolution  and  of  the  wide  reach  of  the  principle  of  natural  selec- 
tion. It  should  not  be  forgotten  that  this  was  in  a  period  when  to 
many  good  people  the  names  of  Darwin  and  Huxley  were  as 
Apollyon,  and  even  amongst  zoologists  the  new  views  were  as  yet 
not  universally  accepted  and  their  leader  in  America,  Louis  Agassiz, 
in  1863,  believed  that  naturalists  were  pursuing  a  phantom  in 
their  search  for  material  gradations  amongst  animals  and  trans- 
mutations of  lower  into  higher  forms. 

In  the  fall  of  1866  his  father  consented  and  the  studious  youth 


432          LEADING  AMERICAN  MEN  OF  SCIENCE 

went  to  Hobart  College,  Geneva,  New  York,  and  here  a  most 
potent  influence  acted  to  fashion  the  ultimate  philosophy  of  his 
life.  Eagerly  seizing  the  opportunities  offered  by  the  college 
library  he  read  and  pondered  the  works  of  Bishop  Berkeley  with 
results  that  came  to  the  surface  in  later  life.  Hobart  thus  became 
a  formative  force  that  he  acknowledges  in  the  dedication  of  his 
life-work  in  philosophic  thought,  his  Foundations  of  Zoology,  in 
the  words:  "To  Hobart  College;  where  I  learned  to  study,  and,  I 
hope,  to  profit  by,  but  not  to  blindly  follow,  the  writings  of  that 
great  thinker  on  the  principles  of  science,  George  Berkeley,  I  have, 
by  permission,  dedicated  this  book." 

While  the  environment  given  him  by  Hobart  was  so  potent,  it 
was  brief  in  extent  of  time,  for  at  the  end  of  the  sophomore 
year  he  left  Hobart  and  entered  Williams  College,  Williamstown, 
Massachusetts,  where  he  graduated  in  1870.  At  Williams  College 
he  took  active  interest  in  the  famous  Lyceum  of  Natural  History 
that  sent  an  expedition  across  South  America.  He  was  marked 
amongst  his  fellows  as  an  unusual  individual,  was  known  as  "the 
philosopher"  and  became  the  center  of  interest  as  the  man  with 
a  microscope.  In  his  room  assembled  those  who  appreciated  his 
ability  to  lead  in  the  intellectual  interpretations  of  nature  and  to 
make  her  facts  clear  and  of  absorbing  interest.  A  noted  zoologist, 
who  as  lower  classman  was  once  in  Brooks'  room  tells  an  anecdote 
that  shows  Brooks'  peculiar  originality.  It  might  be  called  an 
application  of  the  microtome  method  and  runs  as  follows:  Wishing 
to  demonstrate  a  cross-section  of  a  human  hair  and  finding  it 
impossible  to  cut  one  thin  enough,  Brooks  shaved  his  face  and 
then  engaged  the  boys  in  talk  till  such  time  as  he  thought  his 
beard  grown  a  little,  when  shaving  again  he  got  the  desired  slices 
in  the  lather. 

At  Williams,  Sanborn  Tenney  taught  Botany  and  Zoology  and 
Brooks  stood  high  in  his  natural  history  studies  but  also  in  Greek 
and  especially  in  mathematics,  and  when  he  graduated  at  the  age 
of  22  he  was  undecided  which  of  these  abstract  studies  he  should 
follow. 

He  was  an  independent  and  thorough  scholar,  but  took  no 


WILLIAM  KEITH  BROOKS  433 

interest  in  prizes  and  marks;  preferring  to  apply  himself  deeply 
to  topics  that  interested  him  even  if  night  work  should  force  him 
to  miss  morning  exercises.  On  graduating  he  was  elected  to  Phi 
Beta  Kappa. 

Returning  to  Cleveland  his  future  became  a  perplexing  problem. 
Postgraduate  work  was  not  then  in  vogue  and  every  young  man 
who  had  obtained  the  A.B.  degree  was  expected  to  enter  a  profes- 
sion or  begin  self-support.  But  Brooks  desired  a  higher  education, 
and  satisfaction  of  his  mental  rather  than  of  his  physical  self. 
His  step-mother  did  not  favor  further  studies  and  at  one  time 
Brooks  entered  his  father's  counting-house,  but  the  tedium  of 
routine  that  had  no  immediate  ideal  in  view  for  him  was  not  to 
his  nature  and  he  gave  it  up  after  inventing  a  simple  calculating 
contrivance  that  is  said  to  have  been  used  with  satisfaction  and 
practical  benefit. 

The  only  means  to  his  goal  seemed  then,  as  so  often  now,  the 
life  of  a  teacher,  and  for  three  years,  1870-73,  he  taught  as  one 
of  the  Masters  in  the  De  Veaux  College,  a  school  for  boys  at 
Niagara,  New  York.  Here  he  practiced  the  art  of  simple  exposi- 
tion that  made  his  subsequent  university  lectures  so  unusual. 
Being  free  to  enjoy  the  woods  along  the  rapids  and  to  contemplate 
the  majesty  of  the  falls  he  was  in  an  environment  stimulating  to 
thought  and  aspirations. 

But  from  this  stepping-stone  the  young  man  who  would  be  a 
zoologist  must  go  to  Louis  Agassiz,  to  gain  the  best  training  the 
country  had  to  offer  to  the  investigator  of  life.  In  1873  Brooks 
was  one  of  those  fortunate  ones  who  shared  contact  with  the  re- 
markable enthusiasm  of  Agassiz,  the  Master,  in  the  well  con- 
ceived but  inadequately  matured  experiment,  the  Summer  School 
on  the  Island  of  Penikese,  in  Buzzards  Bay.  The  anatomy  of 
fishes  and  the  vitality  of  the  ancient  creature,  Limulus,  were 
impressed  upon  Brooks.  Brooks  was  not  daunted  by  the  confu- 
sion due  to  the  incomplete  state  of  the  buildings,  but  got  directly 
at  the  essentials.  With  characteristic  optimism  he  was  found  dis- 
secting a  shark  in  his  wash-basin  on  his  bed  as  a  table.  In  the 
second  year  of  the  School,  in  1874,  Brooks  with  other  great  pupils 


434          LEADING  AMERICAN  MEN  OF  SCIENCE 

of  the  lamented  Master  went  again  to  Penikese  to  nurture  the  new 
conception  of  a  summer  school  for  teachers,  both  men  and  women. 

At  Cambridge  the  museum  of  Agassiz  was  of  less  value  to  him 
than  the  contact  with  McCrady  whose  work  on  the  jellyfish  of 
Charleston,  South  Carolina,  and  whose  philosophical  discussions 
alike  roused  in  him  keen  response.  In  Boston,  aided  by  Alpheus 
Hyatt,  who  gained  for  him  the  position  of  Assistant  in  the  Boston 
Society  of  Natural  History  for  the  years  1874  and  1875,  he  learned 
the  collections  of  mollusk  shells  by  heart  and  could  pick  them  out 
in  the  dark. 

A  fellow  zoologist,  who  was  a  good  friend  of  Brooks  through 
forty  years,  recalling  the  striking  quality  of  Brooks'  work  as  a 
student  and  his  impressive  earnestness,  says  that:  "His  mind  was 
ever  on  the  problems  of  his  work." 

When,  on  June  30,  1875,  ne  received  the  degree  of  Doctor  of 
Philosophy  from  Harvard  College,  he  had  already  begun  to  pub- 
lish natural  history  articles  in  popular  magazines  and  brief  reports 
of  his  own  discoveries  in  anatomy  and  embryology  of  marine 
animals.  Two  of  his  earliest  communications  were  presented  in 
1874  and  1875  at  the  Hartford  and  the  Detroit  Meetings  of  the 
American  Association  for  the  Advancement  of  Science. 

He  was  recognized  as  a  man  of  great  promise  and  as  in  those 
days  there  was  but  little  real  university  work  on  this  side  of  the 
Atlantic  it  wag  natural  for  his  friends  to  wish  that  he  might  study 
abroad.  Indeed,  Prof.  E.  S.  Morse  had  urged  upon  Brooks' 
father  that  he  be  sent  to  Europe,  but  the  kind  and  indulgent 
parent  had  to  realize  that  the  project  was  one  that  could  not  be 
financed. 

That  year  of  1875  was  one  °f  tne  great  moment  in  the  life  of 
Doctor  Brooks;  in  it  he  gained  his  first  real  insight  into  research 
work  at  the  seaside,  and  in  it  he  aided  in  a  successful  Summer 
School  for  teachers.  The  latter  was  at  his  home  in  Cleveland,  the 
former  in  the  laboratory  of  Alexander  Agassiz  at  Newport,  Rhode 
Island. 

In  Cleveland  the  Kirtland  Natural  History  Society  was  chosen 
as  godfather  to  the  new  project  in  which  Brooks  was  a  leading 


WILLIAM  KEITH  BROOKS  435 

spirit,  but  there  was  some  opposition  and  lack  of  financial  support 
till  Andrew  J.  Rickoff,  Superintendent  of  Public  Schools,  urged 
the  use  of  the  Central  High  School  Buildings,  during  vacation, 
as  all  the  three  projectors,  Albert  H.  Tuttle,  Theo.  S.  Comstock, 
and  William  K.  Brooks,  were  formerly  pupils  of  that  school.  The 
school  started  with  but  three  pupils,  school-teachers,  all  women, 
from  Indianapolis;  but  soon,  after  unexpected  and  most  generous 
pecuniary  aid  from  Leonard  Case,  twenty-five  enthusiastic  teachers 
attended  the  lectures,  excursions  and  laboratory  meetings.  In 
Brooks'  "splendid  work  of  that  summer,"  as  Comstock  has  re- 
cently recalled  it,  we  see  the  characteristic  faith  and  confidence 
that  led  him  to  success  even  when  at  first,  from  lack  of  buildings, 
he  thought  they  must  hold  field  sessions  only  or  use  Doctor  Kirt- 
land's  barn,  relying  upon  "enthusiasm  and  contact  with  nature  to 
somehow  work  out  results,"  or  when  there  were  but  three  pupils, 
to  say  "three  teachers  well  trained,  means  the  sowing  of  seed 
which  shall  yield  a  harvest  none  can  measure." 

Going  then  to  Newport  he  began  his  memorable  research  on 
the  transparent  marine  animal  Salpa.  Meantime  he  eked  out  his 
resources  by  instructing  some  lads  from  New  York  in  the  mysteries 
of  marine  life  which  he  knew  so  well  how  to  make  vivid  and  full  of 
meaning. 

As  this  was  the  beginning  of  an  interest  which  with  characteris- 
tic persistence  he  kept  vividly  burning  till  his  death,  his  work  on 
Salpa  may  well  receive  more  extended  notice  here.  When  in  1908 
his  eyesight  made  it  difficult  for  him  to  longer  use  the  high  powers 
of  the  microscope  he  rejoiced  that  he  had  what  he  thought  his  last 
piece  of  observational  work  so  far  finished  that  a  summer  of  writing 
would  make  his  completed  drawings  ready  for  the  printer.  This 
last  monograph  on  the  embryology  of  Salpa  remains  unfinished, 
as  cruel  sickness  robbed  him  of  that  summer  of  writing. 

But  his  first  investigations  on  Salpa  came  to  pass  because 
Salpa  was  abundant  in  the  clear  waters  of  Newport  and  Alexander 
Agassiz  suggested  he  should  study  them.  So  clear  and  translucent 
are  these  organisms  that  Brooks  was  able  to  make  out  the  anatomy 
of  the  live  animals  by  patient  microscopic  study  without  dissection. 


436          LEADING  AMERICAN  MEN  OF  SCIENCE 

He  found  the  accepted  views  of  great  European  authorities  were 
not  correct,  that  they  had  not  seen  all  there  was  to  be  seen  and  had 
hence  made  false  inferences.  Though  he  says  "this  was  my  first 
effort  in  the  field  of  Marine  Zoology"  the  results  were  of  great 
importance. 

To  understand  his  interest  in  Salpa  and  the  peculiar  way  his 
mind  worked  upon  its  problems  we  must  recall  first  that  it  is  one 
of  the  quiet  bag-like  creatures,  the  Tunicates,  whose  embryology 
had  shown  them  to  be  essentially  like,  and  hence  in  the  new  views, 
blood  relations  of,  the  Vertebrates:  and  second  that  it  was  first  in 
Salpa  that  the  remarkable  phenomenon  of  "alternation  of  genera- 
tions" had  been  extended  to  animals. 

So  great  was  the  interest  in  Europe  in  those  problems  centering 
in  the  Tunicates  that  Brooks  defends  his  first  publication  of  his 
results  without  all  his  evidence  in  illustrations,  by  the  remark  that 
students  of  Salpa  were  finding  new  facts  so  rapidly  that  one  who 
held  back  his  discoveries  till  his  illustrations  should  be  printed 
might  well  find  his  discoveries  no  longer  new. 

It  was  the  poet-naturalist  Chamisso  who  in  voyaging  around  the 
world  with  Kotzebue,  deduced  for  Salpa,  in  1814,  the  phenom- 
enon of  "alternation  of  generations."  This  was  universally 
accepted  and  Salpa  was  described  as  having  two  generations  or 
different  successive  individuals  with  different  modes  of  reproduc- 
tion in  each  life-cycle.  That  is,  there  were  solitary  Salpas  and 
chain  Salpas  found  in  the  water,  and  the  solitary  ones  were  seen 
to  make  the  chains  of  individuals  by  a  budding  or  a  non-sexual 
process.  The  individuals  of  the  chains,  however,  had  eggs  and 
sperm  and  gave  birth  to  solitary  Salpas  having  a  true  sexual  origin, 
but  themselves  again  sexless.  Thus  there  was  said  to  be  an  alterna- 
tion of  sexless  and  of  hermaphrodite  individuals  and  a  sequence 
of  non-sexual  and  of  sexual  modes  of  generation. 

Brooks  found  the  same  facts  but,  in  addition,  the  real  origin  of 
the  eggs — not  in  the  chains  but  in  the  solitary  individuals,  which 
not  only  budded  forth  the  chains  but  put  an  egg  into  each  individ- 
ual of  the  chain. 

Hence  he  claimed  then  that  there  was  no  true  alternation  of 


WILLIAM  KEITH  BROOKS  437 

sexless  with  hermaphrodite  states.  For  the  eggs  found  in  the 
chains  which  produce  sperm  and  are  therefore  males,  are  not 
produced  by  these  chains  but  are  produced  by  the  solitary 
Salpas  and  put  into  the  male  chains  to  be  carried  and  nursed 
by  them. 

The  life-cycle  he  held  was  thus  but  an  alternation  of  females  and 
budded  out  males.  While  "alternation  of  generation"  did  exist 
in  some  animals,  it  did  not  in  Salpa  where  the  phenomenon  was 
first  described, — a  paradox  such  as  Brooks  was  ever  fond  of. 

By  careful  microscopic  observation  Brooks  added  new  facts  to 
the  known  anatomy  of  Salpa,  and  by  keen  interpretation  boldly 
opposed  the  received  opinions  of  the  leading  zoologists.  Later 
when  the  refinement  of  technique  made  it  possible,  he  reexamined 
and  reiterated  his  views  and  was  led  on  to  many  years  of  patient 
toil  upon  various  problems  of  anatomy  and  of  embryology  in 
Salpa  and  its  allies.  Much  of  this  work  appeared  in  his  great 
monograph,  the  Genus  Salpa,  1893,  in  which  he  devoted  some  303 
quarto  pages  and  46  plates  to  his  facts  and  theories. 

In  1876  we  find  Brooks  again  at  the  laboratory  of  Alexander 
Agassiz,  and  now  ready  to  dedicate  himself  at  the  age  of  28  to  the 
service  of  the  fortunate  school  or  institution  that  would  prize  him 
as  a  man  who,  having  profited  by  the  best  training  in  zoology  his 
country  could  give,  had  both  successfully  initiated  a  summer 
school  after  the  ideals  of  Agassiz,  and  had  made  discoveries  which 
he  illuminated  with  the  point  of  view  of  a  genius. 

It  was  not  the  old  college,  rich  in  traditions  but  hampered  by 
customs  and  fears,  but  the  new  foundation  laid  by  Daniel  Coit 
Oilman,  with  its  motto  "  Veritas  vos  liberabit";  that  drew  to  it  the 
rare  spirits  who  were  to  embody  its  ideals.  The  opening  of  the 
Johns  Hopkins  University  with  Professor  Huxley's  address, 
February  22,  1876,  was  doubtless  a  welcome  event  to  Doctor 
Brooks,  the  philosophical  zoologist.  Twenty  Fellowships,  each 
yielding  $500,  were  to  be  awarded  to  men  who  could  develop 
research:  of  152  applicants,  107  were  deemed  eligible  and  re- 
ferred to  specialists  for  election.  Brooks  was  one  of  the  twenty 
chosen. 


438          LEADING  AMERICAN  MEN  OF  SCIENCE 

But  even  when  President  Oilman  was  still  in  California  and 
wrote  East  for  advice  as  to  the  best  man  in  America  to  hold  the 
chair  of  zoology  in  the  new  University  to  be  formed  in  Baltimore, 
Brooks  was  the  man  recommended  strongly. 

Preliminary  preparations  for  Natural  History  work  were  made 
by  Dr.  Philip  R.  Uhler,  Associate  in  Natural  History,  but  he  did 
but  pave  the  way;  the  coming  of  Huxley's  ideals  in  the  mind  of 
Prof.  Henry  Newell  Martin,  established  the  courses  of  instruction 
in  Biology  and  in  Physiology,  but  in  the  organization  of  the  new 
work  Brooks  was  at  once  made  Associate  in  Natural  History  or 
in  Biology,  and  he  gave  independent  lectures  on  the  anatomy  of 
Invertebrates  from  January  to  the  end  of  the  year,  1877,  for  gradu- 
ate students,  while  assisting  Professor  Martin  in  the  first  General 
Biology  course  in  April  and  May  of  1877.  It  is  significant  that 
Brooks  also  gave  sixteen  public  lectures  on  "The  Theories  of 
Biology."  In  a  sense  the  methods  of  this  laboratory  became  a 
mingling  of  the  ideals  of  Huxley  and  of  Agassiz,  the  former  trans- 
lated by  Martin,  the  latter  by  Brooks. 

Later  on  we  find  him  lecturing  on  embryology,  comparative 
anatomy  and  osteology  and  upon  morphological  problems  of 
more  and  more  special  nature  with  increasing  remoteness  from 
the  needs  of  the  beginner  in  zoology  to  whom,  however,  he  gave 
some  of  his  lectures  and  personal  supervision  down  even  to  1907. 
But  his  main  influence  was  with  the  graduate  students  whom  he 
trained,  as  Associate  in  Zoology,  Associate  Professor  in  Compara- 
tive Anatomy,  Associate  Professor  of  Morphology,  Professor  of 
Animal  Morphology  (in  1891),  Head  of  the  Biological  Laboratory 
after  the  resignation  of  Professor  Martin  in  1893,  Professor  of 
Zoology,  and  Henry  Walters  Professor  of  Zoology,  as  the  title 
changed  from  time  to  time.  The  Johns  Hopkins  University  thus 
became  his  mental  home,  his  stimulating  environment  for  more 
than  half  his  lifetime,  through  all  the  productive  years  from  1876  to 
his  death  in  1908. 

To  comprehend  his  unfolding  here,  we  must  recall  both  what  he 
brought  to  the  University  and  what  the  University  held  for  him. 
What  he  seemed  when  he  first  came  has  been  recently  recalled  by 


WILLIAM  KEITH  BROOKS  439 

one  of  the  very  few  here  who  marked  him  then,  Prof.  Basil  L. 
Gildersleeve,  who  says: 

"The  very  first  lecture  I  heard  him  deliver,  when  he  came  here 
a  young  man,  revealed  to  me  at  once  his  uncompromising  demand 
of  scientific  evidence  and  his  marvellous  power  of  generalization. 
His  popular  talks,  simple  in  their  form  as  simple  could  be,  opened 
vistas  of  startling  significance  to  those  who  had  learned  to  think  at 
all.  His  thoughts  did  not  so  much  wander  through  eternity  as 
explore  eternity  with  a  measuring  rod.  To  outsiders  like  myself 
who  were  not  familiar  with  the  patient  process  of  his  scientific 
research,  the  word  'genius'  seemed  to  explain  everything.  He 
seemed  to  us  one  of  those  rarely  gifted  beings,  in  whom  child- 
like sensitiveness  is  paired  with  immediate  insight,  nay,  is  one 
with  it." 

What  opportunity  the  Johns  Hopkins  gave  this  gifted  being 
cannot  be  realized,  nor  his  life-work  estimated  without  due 
emphasis  upon  the  marine  laboratory  which  he  created  and  of 
which  he  was  the  Director. 

He  thus  outlines  his  policy  in  one  of  his  reports  as  Director: 

"In  natural  science  the  policy  of  the  University  is  to  promote 
the  study  of  life,  rather  than  to  accumulate  specimens;  and  since 
natural  laws  are  best  studied  in  their  simplest  manifestations, 
much  attention  has  been  given  to  the  investigations  of  the  simplest 
forms  of  life,  with  confidence  that  this  will  ultimately  contribute 
to  a  clearer  insight  into  all  vital  phenomena  ...  the  ocean  is 
now  as  it  has  been  in  all  stages  of  the  earth's  history,  the  home  of 
life." 

And  the  gain  he  had  from  his  contact  with  the  sea  is  indicated 
in  these  lines  taken  from  a  manuscript  headed: 

"The  Gastrula  Stage.  What  does  it  mean?"  "For  many 
years  it  was  my  good  fortune  to  spend  my  summer  months  upon 
our  southern  sea  coast,  studying  with  a  microscope  the  steps  in 
the  wonderful  process  of  evolution,  or  unfolding  of  animals  from 
their  eggs,  and  the  memory  of  the  time  which  was  thus  spent  will 
always  be  the  most  vivid  and  suggestive  impression  of  my  life." 

Coming  to  Baltimore,  a  city  at  the  head  of  the  Chesapeake  Bay, 
with  his  experiences  at  Penikese  and  Newport,  and  his  own  suc- 
cesses in  the  Summer  School  of  Cleveland  fresh  in  mind,  it  was 


440         LEADING  AMERICAN  MEN  OF  SCIENCE 

necessary  that  Brooks  should  turn  to  the  Chesapeake  Bay  to 
make  his  environment  supply  his  needs. 

Accordingly,  we  find  him  in  the  spring  of  1878  making  a  pre- 
liminary survey  in  search  of  a  suitable  spot  for  a  Summer  School 
in  which  to  study  the  problems  of  life  in  the  sea.  Unfortunately 
the  low  sandy  shores  and  reputed  unwholesomeness  of  the  mouth 
of  the  Bay  offered  but  poor  substitutes  for  the  cold  rocky  shores  of 
Newport,  but  he,  as  ever,  made  the  best  use  of  what  was  available. 
With  a  small  sum  granted  by  the  University  in  1878,  he  opened 
the  first  session  of  the  "Chesapeake  Zoological  Laboratory,"  at 
Fort  Wool,  Virginia. 

An  artificial  heap  of  stones,  making  an  island  of  six  acres  extent, 
covered  by  fortifications  and  twenty  miles  from  the  ocean,  was 
indeed  a  strange  location  for  a  marine  laboratory,  but  lying  in  the 
Bay,  three  miles  from  one  shore  and  one  and  a  half  from  the  other 
it  had  the  advantage  of  some  fifteen  miles  of  tide-water  sweeping 
by  back  and  forth;  though,  to  be  sure,  communication  with  the 
mainland  was  not  always  convenient.  Here  some  seven  workers 
made  up  the  tentative  laboratory  that  was  in  session  eight  weeks, 
and  here  Brooks  had  the  opportunity  to  study  the  ancient  animal 
forms  Lingula  and  Amphioxus. 

Though  with  but  crude  and  scanty  apparatus  and  relying  upon 
occasional  brief  aid  of  tugboats  for  dredging  expeditions,  the  party 
did  good  work  which  was  published  with  the  financial  aid  of  citi- 
zens of  Baltimore,  Shoemaker,  Garret,  Pratt,  Uhler,  Gilman, 
Martin  and  others,  as  The  Scientific  Results  of  the  Chesapeake 
Zoological  Laboratory. 

The  history  of  the  laboratory  henceforth  is  Brooks'  history, 
and  we  cannot  refrain  from  recounting  its  annual  periods  of 
activity.  In  the  second  year,  1879,  Crisfield,  Maryland,  the 
great  oyster  center,  was  selected  in  order  that  Brooks  might  aid 
the  Maryland  Fish  Commission  in  the  study  of  the  oyster.  Some 
eleven  members  of  the  laboratory  lived  there,  having  three  barges 
as  their  laboratory,  from  June  25  to  August  8,  when  even  their 
enthusiastic  endurance  was  forced  to  yield  to  the  native  mosquito, 
whom  the  inhabitants  endured  only  by  making  " smudges"  in 


WILLIAM  KEITH  BROOKS  441 

the  street  and  by  moving  over  into  the  houses  on  the  lee  side. 
Returning  then  to  Fort  Wool,  the  second  session  was  completed 
September  15. 

But  it  was  patent  that  the  fauna  of  the  Chesapeake  Bay  would 
not  furnish  the  material  needed  for  the  problems  Brooks  was 
keen  to  study:  the  well-known  richness  of  the  fauna  of  Beaufort, 
North  Carolina,  drew  him  thither.  With  an  annual  appropriation 
of  $1,000,  and  some  $4,500  for  a  steam  launch,  built  for  him  at 
Bristol,  Rhode  Island,  and  for  other  apparatus,  Brooks  in  1880 
took  a  party  of  six  to  this  rather  remote  village  where  they  opened 
their  laboratory  from  April  23  to  September  30,  more  than  five 
months  of  the  year,  in  the  residence  known  as  the  Gibbs  house  and 
bearing  the  distinction  of  being  "  built  of  cypress  and  put  together 
with  copper  nails." 

The  success  of  this  venture  brought  back  a  party  of  twelve  in 
1 88 1,  but  some  of  these  were  students  just  finishing  college  work, 
drawn  by  this  year's  announcement  that  there  would  be  an  "Ele- 
mentary seaside  school"  with  fees  of  $25,  and  board  and  lodging 
available  from  $20  to  $30  per  month,  and  daily  lectures  by  Dr.  W. 
K.  Brooks  and  Dr.  S.  F.  Clarke.  This  session  lasted  from  May  2 
to  the  end  of  August. 

Again  in  1882,  Brooks  made  one  of  a  party  of  eight  at  Beaufort, 
from  May  i  to  the  end  of  September.  Seven  months  of  the  year 
at  the  sea-shore  laboratory  and  the  rest  in  the  laboratory  in  Balti- 
more! 

However,  being  appointed  by  the  Governor,  Oyster  Commis- 
sioner, Brooks  was  obliged  in  1883  to  remain  in  the  Chesapeake 
and  opened  the  laboratory  at  Hampton,  Virginia,  occupying  part 
of  the  new  machine  shop  of  the  Hampton  Institute  from  May  i  to 
October  i.  This  proved  an  unfavorable  location  for  the  forms 
of  life  that  Doctor  Brooks  was  interested  in,  though  the  visiting 
Englishman,  William  Bateson,  there  enjoyed  the  opportunity  to 
add  to  his  famous  studies  of  the  problematical  worm  Balanoglossus. 
It  was  there  also  that  the  equipment  of  the  laboratory  was  en- 
larged by  the  purchase  of  a  fast  sloop  yacht  which,  though  black 
enough  as  to  paint,  mingled  with  its  usefulness  something  of  the 


442          LEADING  AMERICAN  MEN  OF  SCIENCE 

traits  of  a  white  elephant,  for  its  racing  spars  and  deep  center 
board  were  difficult  to  manage. 

With  both  sloop  and  steam  launch  ten  students  returned  again 
to  Beaufort  in  1884,  when  the  laboratory  was  opened  June  i  to 
September  19,  though  the  illness  of  Doctor  Brooks  obliged  him  to 
return  after  a  month  and  to  leave  the  laboratory  in  the  care  of 
Dr.  H.  W.  Conn.  But  the  next  year  Doctor  Brooks  was  again 
there  with  eleven  students  for  the  fifteen  weeks  from  May  23  to 
September  15. 

These  hot  summer  days  at  Beaufort  were  free  from  convention, 
and  some  may  recall  their  earnest  leader  in  his  room  absorbed  in 
microscopic  study,  clad  in  a  drying  bathing  suit  that  was  not  of 
ideal  fit. 

In  all  his  work  Doctor  Brooks  avoided  indirectness  and  para- 
phernalia, and  did  much  with  his  own  hands  that  might  have  been 
relegated  to  a  subordinate.  He  became  a  licensed  pilot  to  run 
the  steam  launch  in  and  out  of  Beaufort  Inlet  and  later  took  the 
risks  of  acting  as  pilot  to  the  schooner  from  Baltimore  on  the 
voyage  now  to  be  described,  though  her  keel  scraped  the  bar  in 
the  trough  of  the  ground-swell. 

Rich  as  were  the  results  of  all  these  years  of  work  at  Beaufort, 
the  fauna  there  did  not  satisfy  all  the  demands  of  one  devoted  to 
the  fundamental  problems  of  the  lower  animals  that  make  and 
dwell  amidst  coral  islands.  To  such  tropical  life  Brooks  now 
made  a  daring  journey.  Starting  May  i®,  1886,  from  the  wharf 
in  Baltimore,  in  a  small  Bay  schooner  that  was  chartered  by  the 
day,  the  party  of  seven  after  head  winds  and  various  mishaps  and 
a  stop  at  Beaufort  to  take  on  laboratory  furniture,  did  not  reach 
their  destination,  Green  Turtle  Cay,  Abaco,  Bahama  Islands,  till 
June  2.  Here  they  spent  a  memorable  month  of  rare  experience, 
and  some  lingered  on  till  later.  Of  this  voyage  Doctor  Brooks 
wrote  to  the  Baltimore  Sun: 

"We  had  been  shut  up  for  nineteen  days  in  a  little  schooner, 
smaller  than  those  in  which  Columbus  made  his  first  voyage,  in 
a  hold  which  did  not  allow  us  to  stand  erect,  with  no  floor  except  a 
few  rough  boards  laid  on  the  ballast  of  broken  stone." 


WILLIAM  KEITH  BROOKS  443 

But  immediately  he  says: 

"We  had  found  an  endless  source  of  pleasure  and  profit  in  the 
examination  of  the  marine  animals  which  drifted  by  us  in  the  float- 
ing sargassum  of  the  Gulf  Stream,  and  we  had  seen  for  ourselves 
what  we  had  so  often  read,  that  the  ocean  is  the  home  of  animal 
life,  and  that  the  life  of  the  land  is  as  nothing  when  compared  with 
the  boundless  wealth  of  living  things  in  mid-ocean." 

In  search  of  better  opportunity  to  study  the  problems  of  floating 
life  in  the  ocean,  Doctor  Brooks  made  a  second  expedition  to  the 
Bahamas  in  1887,  and  established  a  laboratory  for  twelve  students 
some  three  miles  from  Nassau,  on  the  island  of  New  Providence, 
from  March  i  to  July  i.  But  the  steady  growth  in  value  of  the 
marine  laboratory,  was  destined  to  a  rude  shock  following  the 
financial  losses  to  the  Johns  Hopkins  University  that  made  re- 
trenchment necessary  in  all  directions.  After  ten  successful  ses- 
sions the  " Chesapeake  Zoological  Laboratory"  was  suspended, 
and  its  outfit  dispersed. 

Doctor  Brooks,  however,  turned  to  the  United  States  Fish 
Commission  for  aid  and  becoming  Naturalist  in  charge  of  the 
Station  at  Woods  Holl,  Massachusetts,  continued  his  work  there 
with  some  of  his  students  in  the  summer  months  of  1888;  while 
in  1889  and  1890  they  also  were  somewhat  aided  by  the  same 
Government  bureau.  But  in  1891  the  University  was  again  able 
to  promote  his  researches  and  sent  him  with  some  fourteen  others 
to  Jamaica,  West  Indies,  May  26  to  September  i.  Here  he  estab- 
lished a  successful  laboratory  at  Port  Henderson,  on  the  shore  of 
the  harbor  opposite  Kingston  and  Port  Royal.  Though  he  hoped 
that  the  English  plan  for  a  Columbus  Marine  Station  might  aid 
him  in  future  years,  that  plan  did  not  materialize  and  henceforth 
Professor  Brooks'  energies  were  more  given  to  work  in  Baltimore 
upon  material  that  was  obtained  for  him  and  less  to  personal  study 
in  new  marine  laboratories. 

In  1892  he  sent  three  of  his  students  to  investigate  the  edge  of 
the  great  submerged  table-land  which  borders  the  Gulf  Stream 
on  the  east  and  they  studied  at  Alice  Town,  North  Bimini,  while 
in  1893  others  went  back  to  Port  Henderson,  Jamaica,  as  did  others 


444          LEADING  AMERICAN  MEN  OF  SCIENCE 

again  in  1896.  Meantime  Brooks  took  some  six  students  to 
Beaufort  again  in  1894  and  sent  four  there  in  1895.  Finally  in 
1897  a  party  of  twelve  in  charge  of  Prof.  James  Ellis  Humphrey 
spent  two  months  at  Port  Antonio,  Jamaica,  with  the  lamentable 
loss  from  yellow  fever  of  their  leader  as  well  as  of  the  talented 
zoologist,  Dr.  Franklin  Storey  Conant. 

Since  then  the  establishment  by  the  Government  of  a  permanent 
laboratory  at  Beaufort  and  of  the  Carnegie  Station  on  the  Dry 
Tortugas,  have  given  facilities  which  Brooks  was  not  slow  to 
utilize  for  his  own  work  and  that  of  his  students. 

From  this  long  recital  we  should  learn  that  Brooks'  "  Chesapeake 
Zoological  Laboratory"  evolved  to  fit  the  conditions  and  was 
never  crystallized  nor  hampered  by  rule  or  tradition;  it  was  a  free 
organism,  choosing  its  own  environment,  and  even  dropped  its 
outgrown  name  in  1891,  to  become  the  "  Marine  Laboratory." 

Through  the  history  of  this  laboratory  as  through  the  history 
of  the  university  of  which  it  was  a  part,  ran  a  vein  of  good  manage- 
ment which  makes  it  remarkable  for  the  great  results  achieved  by 
little  financial  outlay,  but  with  great  labors  of  love  and  enthu- 
siasm. 

The  researches  carried  on  by  Professor  Brooks  were  the  natural 
outcome  of  the  above  experience  at  the  seaside  or  rather  the  prob- 
lems he  was  interested  in,  led  him  to  select  the  above  environment. 
Beginning  his  publications  with  observations  upon  the  embryology 
of  mollusks,  he  long  continued  to  make  new  discoveries  in  that 
group  of  animals,  publishing  several  monographs  upon  marine 
and  fresh-water  mollusks,  upon  the  squid  and  upon  the  mollus- 
coidea.  He  was  early  interested  in  the  Polyzoa  and  fresh-water 
sponges  about  Cleveland.  The  Marine  Crustacea  with  their 
clear-cut  problems  of  homology  and  of  metamerism  necessarily 
appealed  to  his  mind,  and  his  discoveries  in  this  group,  his  works 
on  "Lucifer,"  the  " Stomatopods,"  and  the  "  Macrura,"  are 
amongst  the  most  valuable  and  well  known  of  his  contributions 
to  knowledge.  But  amongst  the  still  lower  forms  of  life,  the 
Hydroids  and  jellyfish,  he  found  his  love  of  beauty  of  form  most 
satisfied.  A  monograph  of  American  jellyfish  in  progress  many 


WILLIAM  KEITH  BROOKS  445 

years  was  never  completed  though  the  long  years  of  patient  work 
and  remarkable  pen  drawings  were  largely  given  the  light  in  many 
important  publications.  His  work  on  Salpa  as  previously  related 
bore  upon  the  problem  of  Vertebrate  origin,  but  most  of  his  work 
dealt  exclusively  with  the  fundamental  problem  of  animal  mor- 
phology as  represented  in  non- vertebrate  groups.  Yet  he  at  one 
time  lectured  upon  anthropology  and  when  visiting  Nassau  he 
seized  the  opportunity  to  study  the  remains  of  the  Indians  who 
welcomed  Columbus  and  whose  tragic  fate  deeply  impressed  him. 
But  with  the  exception  of  this  monograph  upon  the  "Lucayan 
Indians"  most  of  his  new  facts  were  gathered  outside  the  field  of 
Vertebrate  groups. 

His  work  contains  much  thought,  and  he  can  scarce  be  called  a 
prolific  writer  of  small  papers.  It  would  be  difficult  to  enumerate 
many  more  than  150  titles  in  the  thirty  years  of  most  active  work 
from  1876-1906. 

But  besides  these  technical  papers  he  had  meanwhile  contrib- 
uted many  popular  articles  as  well  as  theories,  essays,  and  reviews. 
As  early  as  1877,  his  Provisional  Hypothesis  of  Pan  genesis  was  a 
bold  and  thoughtful  attempt  to  make  more  acceptable  the  Pan- 
genesis  of  Darwin,  and  his  book  Heredity  in  1883  elaborated  the 
like  view  that  variations  are  handed  down  chiefly  through  the 
males.  These  views  modified  his  conceptions  of  the  place  of 
woman  in  society  and  yet  it  was  characteristic  of  his  balance  of 
mind  that  he  wished  to  submit  his  theoretic  conclusions  to  the 
test  of  experiment  and  thus  to  find  out  how  far  woman  could  profit 
by  sharing  the  higher  education  of  men. 

Some  of  his  most  deeply  and  well-thought-out  essays  and  lec- 
tures were  brought  together  in  book  form  in  his  Foundations  of 
Zoology  (Macmillan  Co.,  1899  and  1907),  which  must  ever 
remain  his  chief  contribution  to  philosophical  thought.  The  work 
preeminently  expresses  his  remarkable  balance  of  mind;  part  of 
his  purpose  was  "to  show  to  them  who  think  with  Berkeley," 
that  "it  is  a  hard  thing  to  suppose,  that  right  deductions  from  true 
principles  should  ever  end  in  consequences  which  cannot  be 
maintained  or  made  consistent";  that,  "in  my  opinion,  there  is 


446          LEADING  AMERICAN  MEN  OF  SCIENCE 

nothing  in  the  prevalence  of  mechanical  conceptions  of  life,  and 
of  mind,  or  in  the  unlimited  extension  of  these  conceptions,  to 
show  that  this  hard  thing  to  suppose  is  true."  And  some  of  his 
point  of  view  is  paraphrased  by  an  English  reviewer  as  follows: 

"But  supposing  the  mechanical  conception  of  life  to  be  estab- 
lished, and  admitting  that  the  argument  from  contrivance  would 
thereby  lose  its  force,  the  attempted  proof  of  the  existence  of  a 
designer  would  not  on  that  account  be  supplanted  by  disproof. 
Further,  whatever  the  scientific  account  of  nature  may  ultimately 
be,  it  can  throw  no  light  upon  the  primal  cause  or  final  purpose 
of  the  whole  or  of  any  part.  Science  tells  us  what  takes  place, 
and  how  it  takes  place,  she  discovers  the  succession  of  events  and 
gives  us  a  reasonable  confidence  in  the  steadfastness  of  that  suc- 
cession, but  she  refuses  to  admit  any  necessity  therefor,  and  as  to 
any  cause  that  lies  behind  the  veil  of  the  physical  universe,  she  re- 
mains for  ever  dumb." 

But  Professor  Brooks  was  no  mere  dreamer  and  theorist  hold- 
ing himself  aloof  from  the  practical  needs  of  his  fellow-beings. 
His  opportunities  for  carrying  on  his  own  researches  did  not  lead 
him  to  neglect  doing  his  best  for  his  pupils  and  for  the  community 
in  which  he  lived;  and  his  best  was  to  show  them  his  ideals  and 
to  let  practical  execution  develop  their  own  powers.  In  1879 
he  took  part  in  a  course  of  elementary  teaching  in  Biology  for 
teachers  in  Baltimore,  giving  fifteen  Saturday  morning  lectures 
with  three  times  as  much  laboratory  work  in  which  he  was  aided 
by  Dr.  S.  F.  Clarke.  The  fifteen  teachers  who  applied,  and  six 
of  them  were  women,  were  led  to  study  such  animals  as  amoeba, 
hydra,  sponge,  starfish,  sea-urchin,  earthworm,  leech,  crawfish, 
crab,  grasshopper,  mussel,  oyster,  and  squid. 

The  laboratory  directions  he  drew  up  were  sought  for  and  used 
by  Prof.  Alpheus  Hyatt  in  his  work  with  teachers  in  the  Boston 
Society  of  Natural  History,  and  also  by  Walter  Faxon  in  his  work 
with  undergraduates  at  the  Museum  of  Comparative  Zoology  at 
Harvard,  so  that  Brooks  finally  in  1882  made  a  book,  his  Handbook 
of  Invertebrate  Zoology,  which  was  a  most  valuable  and  original 
text-book  to  aid  the  student  at  the  sea-shore.  He  also  took  part  in 
1882  in  an  attempt  to  aid  the  employees  of  the  Baltimore  and 


WILLIAM  KEITH  BROOKS  447 

Ohio  Railroad,  giving  a  lecture  "Upon  some  methods  of  locomo- 
tion in  animals"  in  which  after  clearly  describing  the  locomotion 
of  several  non-vertebrates  he  led  to  a  brief  exposition  of  the  princi- 
ples of  natural  selections  and  ended  with  the  application  that  each 
to  succeed  should  "make  yourselves  a  little  different  from  your 
neighbors"  and  that  the  one  lesson  which  natural  science  teaches 
is  "whatsoever  thy  hand  findeth  to  do,  do  it  with  thy  might." 

His  wish  to  aid  the  community  also  found  expression  in  the 
establishment  of  a  public  aquarium  in  Druid  Hill  Park,  but 
the  time  was  hardly  ripe  and  so  the  aquarium  became  a  black- 
smith shop. 

But  to  the  practical  man  Brooks  gave  the  greatest  boon  in  his 
work  upon  the  oyster  industry  of  Maryland.  Finding  in  1878 
new  and  remarkable  scientific  facts  regarding  the  American 
oyster  he  entered  upon  a  thorough  study  of  the  problems  of  the 
oyster  industries  that  meant  so  much  to  the  state  of  his  adoption. 
Realizing  that  the  oyster  was  peculiarly  adapted  to  reclaim  for 
mankind  the  waste  material  swept  into  the  Chesapeake  by  the 
rivers  that  drain  so  vast  an  area  and  carry  off  the  wealth  of  the 
soil,  and  that  the  methods  of  fishing  were  primitive  and  waste- 
ful, while  legislation  favored  a  few  he  pointed  out  in  his  Report 
as  Oyster  Commissioner  what  principles  should  be  followed  out, 
what  legislation  enacted,  in  order  to  greatly  enrich  the  whole 
community.  Though  his  recommendations  were  then  rejected 
as  being  too  ideal  for  the  times,  yet  by  lectures  and  discussions 
and  by  his  popular  book  The  Oyster  published  in  1891,  and  revised 
in  1905,  he  so  kept  the  matter  in  the  public  eye  that  in  1906, 
legislation  in  the  right  direction  was  finally  obtained  and  the  future 
wealth  of  the  state  will  be  derived  in  part  from  his  scientific 
beliefs  and  keen  foresight.  So  deeply  did  the  success  of  the  oyster 
industry  impress  itself  upon  Professor  Brooks  that  from  1882  he 
lived  always  in  the  eager  hope  of  practical  realization  from  his 
application  of  sound  judgment  upon  extensive  scientific  observa- 
tions. In  fact  when  urged  strongly  to  head  the  zoological  depart- 
ment of  a  new  university  in  the  north,  his  desire  to  see  the  oyster 
industry  restored  to  prosperity  by  the  application  of  science  to  the 


448          LEADING  AMERICAN  MEN  OF  SCIENCE 

welfare  of  the  community  was  no  small  determining  factor  in 
keeping  him  in  Baltimore.  From  this  interest  in  practical  work 
arose  the  labors  of  his  pupils  in  studying  and  advancing  the  oyster 
industries  of  New  England,  New  Jersey,  Oregon,  Louisiana,  the 
Carolinas,  and  Maryland. 

But  to  appreciate  the  labors  of  Professor  Brooks  both  in  practical 
and  in  theoretical  knowledge  we  must  know  of  his  great  physical 
handicaps.  Born  with  heart  anatomy  incomplete  from  the  stand- 
point of  the  average  man,  Brooks  well  knew  his  limitations  in  effort. 
At  college,  he  believed  death  would  overtake  him  at  any  time  with 
exertion  that  his  fellows  might  find  of  no  harm.  On  his  fortieth 
birthday  he  congratulated  himself  to  have  brought  it  so  far,  since 
at  birth  he  was  given  but  a  few  days  of  life  as  his  probable  fate. 
No  insurance  company  would  take  his  risk  and  soon  or  later  the 
strain  upon  the  internal  adjustments  of  his  organism  must  prove 
too  great.  Yet  when  overcome  by  death,  November  12,  1908, 
after  months  of  painful  sickness,  Professor  Brooks  had  completed 
more  than  sixty  years  of  life  with  a  congenital  heart  defect  said  to 
be  rarely  carried  to  manhood.  His  colored  drawings  of  stomato- 
pods  made  in  the  heat  of  the  Dry  Tortugas  in  1906,  show  no  trem- 
bling of  the  hand  but  the  old  love  of  form  and  of  color.  Amongst 
his  ancestors  were  seven  who  exceeded  three  score  and  ten;  that 
Professor  Brooks'  life  fell  short  is  no  wonder. 

He  was  fond  of  pipe  and  cigars  and  at  times  chewed  tobacco  to 
relieve  some  suppressed  irritation  and  produce  the  necessary  quiet. 
He  was  by  no  means  one  who  saved  himself  in  work  or  who  was 
careful  of  exposure  and  of  diet,  so  that  in  his  life  of  rough  living 
at  the  shore  he  repeatedly  was  the  prey  to  fevers  and  diseases  as 
well  as  subject  to  many  of  the  minor  ills  of  the  flesh  which  he  bore 
with  a  fortitude  that  might  to  strangers  seem  indifference. 

Deeply  interesting  but  baffling  must  be  the  association  in 
this  man  of  such  an  incomplete  and  partly  embryonic  machinery 
of  life  with  great  balance  and  equalization  of  mental  traits  and 
the  perennial  spirit  of  child  faith.  But  here  is  a  special  case 
of  the  intricate  problem  of  mind  and  body  whose  answer  we 
shall  lack  till,  as  Professor  Brooks  used  to  say,  "we  find  out." 


WILLIAM  KEITH  BROOKS  449 

In  personal  appearance  Professor  Brooks  was  not  tall,  short 
in  the  limbs,  of  abundant  flesh  but  of  refined  and  small  boning. 
With  long,  straight  hair,  he  was  conspicuous  at  Harvard  and  in  his 
first  years  in  Baltimore  for  his  rich  brown  beard  that  added  to  his 
appearance  of  reserve  force  and  emphasized  the  keen  beauty  of 
his  seeing  eyes.  To  the  young  student  he  seemed  something 
sphinx-like. 

The  portrait  by  Thomas  C.  Corner,  presented  by  some  fifty  of 
his  pupils  on  his  fiftieth  birthday,  represents  him  as  they  knew  him, 
sedentary  in  habit,  deliberate  in  all  motions,  rather  careless  of 
appearance,  and  long  rapt  in  meditations  to  be  broken  by  an 
individual  uplift  of  the  eye  when  about  to  express  some  matured 
thought  or  long-delayed  answer. 

His  habits  in  work  were  evidently  imposed  by  his  physique  and 
by  his  circumstances  of  life.  After  a  day  of  lectures  and  laboratory 
work  he  might  spend  the  evening  with  his  family  and  later,  when 
the  household  was  at  rest,  write  and  study  far  on  into  the  night 
with  his  feet  wrapped  warmly  to  gain  the  needed  conditions  for 
intense  brain  activity.  In  vacation  time  he  might  work  all  day 
or  all  night  with  his  microscope,  or  rise  early  and  work  with  inter- 
vals of  short  sleep.  In  his  last  years  he  found  night  work  no 
longer  possible  and  then  turned  to  music  to  console  and  cheer  his 
lonely  evenings,  repeating  on  a  mechanical  piano  his  favorites, 
such  as  the  Fifth  Symphony,  the  Overture  to  Tannhauser  and 
some  fugues  of  Bach. 

In  his  lectures  he  did  not  use  notes,  and  made  blackboard 
drawings  with  great  care  and  symmetry.  By  imagining  himself 
in  the  place  of  the  phenomenon  he  wished  to  describe,  he  often 
made  vivid  and  lasting  impressions  as  in  acting  out  the  homologies 
of  front  and  hind  limbs,  or  in  conceiving  himself  incased  in  rubber 
to  make  the  locomotor  organs  of  a  squid,  or  clothed  in  the  germ 
layer  of  a  chick  embryo.  Prof.  W.  H.  Howel  has  said  of  Brooks' 
lectures,  "but  the  clearness,  the  orderliness,  and  the  attractiveness 
with  which  he  could  present  a  subject  was  really  unrivaled,  as  far 
as  my  experience  goes.  He  seemed  to  have  such  a  complete  con- 
trol of  his  mental  processes,  he  thought  so  well  and  so  clearly  and 


450          LEADING  AMERICAN  MEN  OF  SCIENCE 

expressed  his  thoughts  in  such  appropriate  language,  that  every 
student  with  a  spark  of  interest  in  the  subject  was  delighted;  it 
was  a  treat  to  hear  him  lecture." 

His  methods  were  always  extremely  simple  and  direct,  and  he 
believed  in  doing  himself  what  he  wanted  to  have  done  well.  In 
the  laboratory  he  laboriously  cut  endless  sections,  sharpening  his 
own  microtome  knife,  and  made  so  little  use  of  others'  aid  that  his 
chief  researches  are  peculiarly  his  own  in  all  their  execution. 
Electric  bells  and  speaking-tubes  were  not  often  used,  and  his  res- 
onant enheartening  voice  as  he  summoned  the  janitor  seems  still 
to  pervade  his  work  place. 

In  reading  technical  works  and  in  preparing  lectures  he  often 
wrote  abstracts  with  pen  copies  of  illustrations  in  cheap  note-books, 
5Jx8J  inches,  folding  lengthwise  and  convenient  to  carry  in  the 
pocket.  Often  these  were  written  only  on  one  side  of  the  page, 
but  later  reversed  and  used  again  for  some  different  topic.  Rarely 
were  dates  given  to  MSS.  and  drawings,  for  time  was  of  lesser 
moment  to  him  than  the  ideas  with  which  he  grouped  his  materials 
in  his  own  mind.  He  made  no  lists  of  his  own  works  and  no  at- 
tempts to  use  clerical  aid. 

But  it  should  not  be  inferred  that  he  was  too  wedded  to  old-time 
simplicity.  He  soon  learned  to  write  his  manuscripts  on  the  type- 
writer, with  characteristic  deliberateness  and  continuousness. 
And  though  long  preferring  the  direct  and  simple  styles  of  micro- 
scope adjustment  he  used  for  his  later  Salpa  work  Zeiss's  most 
refined  apparatus  and  was  proud  to  prepare  series  of  sections  of 
extreme  fineness. 

Professor  Brooks  found  time  for  wide  reading  and  was  fond  of 
the  best  in  literature  and  careful  in  his  own  writings  to  seek  for 
expression  in  simple  English.  His  library  contained  well-worn 
favorites,  but  he  was  anything  but  a  collector  of  books.  For  the 
pet  dog  that  chewed  his  Shakspere  he  had  but  praise  as  showing 
good  taste,  but  the  pup  that  destroyed  cheap  novels  was  a  rascal. 

He  was  ever  fond  of  a  good  joke,  and  took  delight  in  an  anecdote 
of  unexpected  and  subtle  turn.  Though  so  devoted  to  his  work 
as  to  be  shut  off  from  much  social  life,  he  was  very  fond  of  his 


WILLIAM  KEITH  BROOKS  451 

friends  and  neighbors  and  glad  to  converse  when  he  had  a  topic 
to  develop  or  a  congenial  companion  to  listen  to,  but  was  often 
absorbed  and  so  lacking  in  small  talk  as  to  seem  unapproachable. 

The  topics  of  the  day  had  peculiar  aspects  to  him.  In  the  Japan- 
ese War  it  was  the  unfortunate  people  of  Manchuria  who  greatly 
excited  his  sympathy.  The  subject  that  interested  him  deeply 
was  part  of  him  and  came  to  the  surface  in  place  of  mere  common- 
places; when  giving  lectures  on  the  oyster  problem  he  could  talk 
of  nothing  else;  when  wrestling  with  philosophical  problems  he 
might  give  to  his  first  met  friend  such  sayings  as  "the  term  'super- 
natural '  is  due  to  a  misconception  of  nature,  nature  is  everything 
that  is." 

Professor  Brooks'  anger  rarely  came  to  the  surface,  but  he  had 
strong  natural  likes  and  dislikes  which  underwent  unexpected 
change  as  evidence  accumulated.  Bad  politics,  speciousness,  and 
dishonesty  and  oppression  aroused  his  long-continued  animosity. 
He  never  forgave  the  superior  officer  who  would  defraud  the  state 
by  having  him  sign  receipt  for  wages  in  excess  of  what  he  received. 

He  had  full  sympathy  for  servants  and  those  of  restricted  educa- 
tion and  did  many  a  deed  of  kindness  known  to  few.  In  the  period 
of  his  own  greatest  relief  from  poverty  and  acme  of  academic 
renown  he  was  found  bringing  daily  bottles  of  milk  from  his  coun- 
try home  that  the  motherless  children  of  the  faithful  laboratory 
servant  might  share  his  own  advantages. 

His  sympathies  extended  beyond  his  fellow-man  to  animals 
and  even  to  the  plants  he  grew  and  tended  as  companions  rather 
than  as  specimens.  For  long  years  his  close  companion  and 
friend  was  the  grand  St.  Bernard  dog,  "Tige,"  whom  Professor 
James  of  Harvard  has  referred  to  as  "that  noble  dog."  Following 
his  master  from  college  life  to  Baltimore  and  through  many  of  his 
wanderings  by  the  shore  this  constant  comrade  falling  prey  to 
some  heart  disease  was  truly  mourned  and  never  forgotten,  though 
other  dog  friends,  many  and  varied,  later  came  in  his  stead. 

Professor  Brooks  was  preeminently  suited  for  the  happy  domes- 
tic life  he  led  as  he  could  ignore  the  petty  frictions  of  daily  life 
and  though  absorbed  in  his  work  yet  rule  with  wisdom  and  firm- 


452          LEADING  AMERICAN  MEN  OF  SCIENCE 

ness  in  all  that  concerned  the  actualities  of  existence.  In  his 
earliest  days  at  Johns  Hopkins  he  and  some  others  who  made  the 
nucleus  of  the  biological  department  took  up  their  abode  at 
"Brightside,"  a  boarding  house  on  the  shore  of  Lake  Rowland  a 
few  miles  from  the  city.  This  led  to  his  marriage,  June  13,  1878, 
to  Amelia  Katharine,  daughter  of  Edward  T.  Schultz  and  Susan 
Rebecca,  daughter  of  David  E.  Martin.  In  after  years  he  made 
his  home  permanently  at  "Brightside"  since  the  owner,  Mrs. 
Posey,  bequeathed  this  most  beautiful  estate  to  her  favorite  niece, 
Mrs.  Brooks. 

So  it  came  to  pass  that  after  years  of  struggle  in  a  city  home 
where  even  his  most  ingenious  lamp  hot-water  apparatus  would 
not  make  his  favorite  plants  thrive  in  the  window-case,  Professor 
Brooks  gained  space  and  light  in  the  country  and  was  even  able 
to  have  a  diminutive  greenhouse  for  the  objects  of  his  experiments 
and  of  his  horticultural  relaxation. 

Happy  as  he  was  with  his  great  trees  and  self-reared  plants,  it 
is  well  to  recall  that  there  were  shadows  to  the  bright  cloud  which 
many  another  would  not  have  lived  under  so  cheerfully.  But  he 
bravely  suppressed  natural  revolt  at  extra  family  burdens  laid  upon 
him  and  by  aid  of  his  excellent  business  instincts  was  enabled  to 
remove  debts,  enlarge  and  perfect  the  property  while  carrying  out 
his  ideals  for  his  children.  Recalling  his  own  hard  won  university 
education  he  sent  his  son,  Charles  Edward  Brooks,  to  the  Johns 
Hopkins  University,  where  he  received  the  A.B.  degree  in  1900, 
and  the  Ph.D.  degree  in  mathematics,  in  1904.  His  daughter, 
Menetta  W.  Brooks,  he  also  sent  through  Vassar  College. 

His  determination  to  give  his  children  this  higher  education 
ran  counter  to  a  year  of  needed  rest  and  change  in  Europe,  and  he 
worked  on  till  it  became  too  late. 

In  his  trips  to  the  sea  his  family  went  also  if  anywise  possible, 
and  when  absent  from  them  Professor  Brooks'  anxiety  made 
direct  inroads  upon  his  health.  Through  the  long  years  of  Mrs. 
Brooks'  invalidism,  Professor  Brooks  had  grievous  burdens  of 
love  to  bear,  and  his  devotion  was  most  pathetic.  She  died  in  the 
spring  of  1901. 


WILLIAM  KEITH  BROOKS  453 

His  son  being  born  in  1879,  an<^  his  daughter  in  1881,  Professor 
Brooks'  great  pride  in  and  love  for  his  children  and  his  devotion  to 
his  wife  were  well-known  and  potent  elements  in  the  life  of  most 
of  his  students  who  in  the  evening  readings  at  Professor  Brooks' 
house  were  taken  so  generously  into  its  elevating  influence. 

A  review  of  the  names  of  the  sixty  men  who  came  together  at 
the  end  of  1908  to  do  honor  to  the  memory  of  their  late  master 
would  show  that  no  small  part  of  the  work  of  Professor  William 
Keith  Brooks  had  been  to  train  and  influence  many  of  the  leaders 
in  zoology.  As  Dr.  A.  G.  Mayer  has  well  said,  "The  spirit  of  his 
simple  faith  in  research  he  has  passed  on  to  those  whose  lives  were 
enriched  by  knowing  him  and  who  now  follow  where  he  led  in  the 
study  of  Science." 

His  influence  over  his  pupils  was  peculiar — they  recognized 
him  as  a  leader  in  ideals  while  fully  aware  of  his  faults.  One 
writes:  "No  man  ever  worked  in  a  more  single-minded  and  lofty 
spirit."  Another  says:  "Like  all  great  teachers  he  knew  that  the 
primary  purpose  of  teaching  is  inspiration  and  illumination  and 
that  information  is  only  of  secondary  importance."  A  third  has 
pictured  his  influence  as  follows:  "But  Brooks'  particular  influence 
was  due  chiefly,  I  imagine,  to  the  fact  that  all  of  us  recognized  in 
him  a  certain  independence  and  profundity  of  thought.  He  was 
interested  in  the  large  problems  of  Biology.  Concerning  these 
problems  he  thought  continually  and  deeply  and  along  lines  of  his 
own.  Those  who  were  brought  into  close  association  with  him, 
as  students,  appreciated  this  fact  and  at  once  accepted  him  as  an 
intellectual  guide  and  master.  Matters  of  laboratory  technique 
they  might  have  to  acquire  from  other  sources,  but  from  him  they 
obtained  the  stimulus  to  real  thinking." 

Many  of  us  might  subscribe  to  the  statement  of  one  that  "there 
are  few  men  to  whom  I  feel  so  much  beholden,"  and  very  many  are 
voiced  in  the  words  of  another:  "I  owe  Dr.  Brooks  a  large  debt  of 
gratitude  for  what  he  did  for  me.  I  have  often  wondered  why  he 
let  me  do  some  of  the  things  I  did  without  any  protest.  Maybe 
he  felt  that  sense  would  come  after  a  while." 

His  contact  with  his  pupils  was  not  only  in  the  laboratory  and 


454          LEADING  AMERICAN  MEN  OF  SCIENCE 

lecture-rooms  but  in  the  unconventional  months  at  the  seaside  and 
in  the  intimacy  of  his  evening  reading  at  his  home  where  the  stu- 
dents were  welcomed  to  his  family  circle  and  enjoyed  Brooks' 
exposition  of  technical  papers,  philosophical  writings,  travels  of 
naturalists,  or  even  Kingsley's  Water  Babies  and  a  poem  of  Hood. 

Professor  Brooks  was  not  given  to  self-seeking  and  canvassing 
for  academic  preferments  and  honors,  but  his  worth  was  not 
without  recognition.  Very  early,  when  but  thirty-six  years  old, 
he  was  elected  member  of  the  National  Academy.  Williams 
College  in  1893,  and  Hobart  in  1899,  and  the  University  of  Penn- 
sylvania in  1906,  bestowed  upon  him  the  honorary  LL.D.  degree. 

He  was  chosen  a  member  of  the  American  Philosophical  Society 
in  1886,  and  of  the  Academy  of  Natural  Sciences  in  1887.  He 
was  a  member  of  the  Boston  Society  of  Natural  History,  the 
American  Academy  of  Arts  and  Sciences,  the  Maryland  Academy 
of  Arts  and  Sciences,  and  the  American  Society  of  Zoologists  while 
a  fellow  of  the  American  Association  for  the  Advancement  of 
Science  and  of  the  Royal  Microscopical  Society.  He  was  editor 
of  the  quarto  series  of  Memoirs  from  the  Biological  Laboratory 
published  by  the  Johns  Hopkins  University,  and  one  of  the  editors 
of  the  Journal  of  Experimental  Zoology  and  of  the  Studies  from 
the  Biological  Laboratory  of  the  Johns  Hopkins  University.  He 
was  Lowell  Lecturer  in  1901,  and  gave  one  of  the  chief  addresses 
in  1907  before  the  International  Zoological  Congress  in  Boston. 

For  his  scientific  discoveries  on  the  oyster  he  was  awarded,  in 
1883,  the  medal  of  the  Societe  d'Acclimatation  of  Paris  and  for  his 
work  on  the  stomatopods  of  the  Challenger  Expedition  received 
a  Challenger  Medal.  He  also  received  a  medal  for  an  address  at 
the  St.  Louis  Exposition  of  1904. 

If  in  reviewing  the  life  of  this  man  who  has  been  called  "a  sub- 
limely simple  man  of  rare  and  subtle  culture"  we  ask  what  quali- 
ties of  mind  and  character  and  what  training  have  guided  his  con- 
tributions to  the  advance  of  science  in  America  we  must  first 
clearly  realize  that  in  him  the  inborn  overcame  the  obstacles  of 
his  experience  however  important  may  have  been  the  circumstances 
of  his  life  in  shaping  his  self-expression.  If  with  Professor  Brooks 


WILLIAM  KEITH  BROOKS  455 

we  speak  of  inherent  properties  as  nature  and  of  superinduced 
changes  of  experience  as  nurture,  in  the  life  of  Brooks  we  must 
emphasize  the  great  importance  of  his  nature;  the  childlike  excel- 
lencies and  deep  thought-power  given  him  from  his  origin  while 
on  the  other  hand  the  value  of  his  nurture  should  not  be  over- 
looked. One  of  his  early  companions  has  recently  said:  "In  all 
his  training  at  home,  in  school  and  at  college  he  was  rigidly  sur- 
rounded with  influences  adverse  to  original  research  or  to  scientific 
study."  But  we  must  not  forget  the  formative  power  of  his 
mother's  influence,  his  church  and  school  training,  his  college 
life  and  contact  with  great  naturalists  and  later  his  rich  oppor- 
tunities at  the  Johns  Hopkins  and  its  seaside  laboratories. 

His  talents  were  inborn  and  overcame  obstacles  and  assimilated 
opportunities;  but  other  opportunities  might  have  made  a  very 
different  result.  His  life  was  reactive  to  environment,  but  the 
environment  acted  as  a  stimulus  and  he  reacted  after  his  kind 
and  was  not  passively  molded  by  circumstances. 

When  all  is  said,  William  Keith  Brooks  was  able  to  leave  his 
mark  on  the  development  of  science  in  America  not  so  much  by 
any  "mystery"  of  "genius"  as  by  stubborn  labor,  conscientious 
application  to  duty,  by  pertinacity  of  purpose,  by  concentration 
of  his  forces  upon  what  he  could  do,  by  wisely  seizing  opportunities 
for  self-expression,  by  living  much  in  the  ideal  world  so  that  he 
was  not  crushed  by  the  weight  of  daily  burdens  and  above  all  by 
being  able  to  keep  much  of  his  child  spirit  even  to  the  end. 


INDEX 


Abbe,  Prof.  Cleveland,  140 

Abel,  Niels  Henrik,  17 

Abiogenesis,  194 

Acoustics,  see  Sound,  phenomena  of 

Actinaria,  see  Actinoidea 

Actinoidea,  246 

Actinozoa,  see  Actinoidea 

Adams,  Dr.  J.  F.  A.,  201  note 

Agassiz,  Alexander,  159 

Agassiz,  Jean  Louis  Rodolphe,  birth 
and  inheritance,  148;  early  love 
for  science,  149;  academic  career, 
149-151;  personality,  150;  reli- 
gious attitude,  151;  association 
with  Von  Martius,  152;  honors, 
153,  154;  poverty,  153,  154; 
dream  of  a  fossil  fish,  153;  be- 
friended by  Humboldt,  154;  mar- 
riages, 154, 157;  visits  to  England, 
155;  interest  in  glaciers,  155,  168; 
lectures  in  America,  156;  pro- 
fessor at  Harvard  and  at  Charles- 
ton Medical  School,  157,  158; 
influence  on  science,  157;  begins 
Contributions  to  the  Natural  His- 
tory of  the  U.  S.,  159;  voyages  in 
The  Hassler  and  The  Bibb,  161; 
laboratory  at  Penikese  Island 
161;  opposition  to  Darwinian 
theory,  168,  194  and  note,  248; 
death,  169;  association  with  Dr. 
J.  B.  Holder,  147;  qualities  as  a 
scientist,  148;  lecture  courses  at 
Harvard,  178;  weight  of  brain, 
196;  theory  of  glacial  drift,  263; 
also  109,  193,  263,  267,  270,  271, 
272,  277,  289,  313,  433,  435,  437, 
438 

Agassiz,  Mrs.  Elizabeth  Graves 
Gary,  157,  158,  167 

Albatross,  The,  401 

Alcantara,  Dom  Pedro  d',  387 

Alcyonaria,  see  Actinoidea 

Aldrovandi,  Ulysses,  393 

Alexander,  Prof.  Stephen,  128 


Alternation  of  generations,  436 

Amblystoma,  Metamorphosis  of  Sire- 
don  into,  by  O.  C.  Marsh,  292 

American  Fishes,  by  G.  B.  Goode, 
400 

American  Journal  of  Mathematics, 
381, 

American  Journal  of  Mineralogy,  109 

American  Journal  of  Science,  89, 
109,  no,  115  note,  177,  193,  235, 
240,  243,  255,  289,  290,  302 

American  Naturalist,  332,  335 

American  Ornithology,  by  Alexander 
Wilson,  51,  61,  62,  64-66,  68 

Amphibia  and  Reptilia,  publica- 
tions on,  by  E.  D.  Cope,  328 

Amphioxus,  440 

Anatomy,  Wyman's  definition  of, 
178 

Anderson,  John,  161 

Anderson,  Robert,  101 

Anhinga  anhinga,  see  Snake-bird 

Animal  Mechanics,  by  Bell  and 
Wyman,  173  note,  191 

Annual  Record  of  Science  and  In- 
dustry, 272 

Antarctic  continent,  discovery  of, 
238;  see  also  Wilkes  Exploring 
Expedition 

Anthozoa,  see  Actinoidea 

Anthropoid  Apes,  by  Robert  Hart- 
mann,  188  note 

Anticlines,  255,  256 

Anticlinorium,  type  of  mountain 
range,  256 

Apgar,  Prof.  163 

Appalachians,  type  of  mountain 
structure,  255,  257 

Arago,  Dominique  Francois,  114 

Archeological  collections  of  O.  C. 
Marsh,  305 

Archibald,  Dr.  R.  C.,  381 

Arkansas  River,  expedition  to  ex- 
plore the  sources,  61 

Asteroids,  see  Astronomy 

457 


458 


INDEX 


Astronomy,  372,  374,  376,  388;  see 
also  Newcomb,  Simon 

Atolls,  see  Coral  reefs 

Audubon,  John  James,  birth,  71; 
descent  and  early  education,  72; 
sent  to  America,  73;  drawings  of 
birds,  73,  74;  extravagant  tastes, 
73;  return  to  France,  74;  marriage, 
74;  business  career,  74,  76;  meet- 
ing with  Wilson,  76;  applies  for 
position  on  Lewis  and  Clark  ex- 
pedition, 76;-  financial  calamity, 
77;  drawing  portraits  and  teach- 
ing, 77,  80;  first  idea  of  publishing 
bird  drawings,  78;  friends  and 
enemies,  79;  publishes  one  hun- 
dred plates,  80;  success  in  Edin- 
burgh, 81;  visits  to  America,  81; 
letter  press  begun  and  work  com- 
pleted, 82;  settles  in  New  York 
city,  82;  preparation  of  Quadru- 
peds of  North  America,  82;  physi- 
cal failure,  83;  death,  84;  attitude 
toward  Wilson  and  comparison 
with,  67,  69,  84-86;  merits  of  his 
work,  84-87;  assistance  of  Mc- 
Gillivray  in  preparation  of  Synop- 
sis, 85;  personality,  71,  77,  80,  83, 
87;  also  272,  273,  427 

Audubon,  John  Woodhouse,  83 

Bache,  Prof.  Alexander  Dallas,  132, 

134 

Bachman,  Rev.  John,  81-83 
Bacon,  Francis,  Lord  Verulam,  341, 

350 
Bahama  Islands,  expeditions  to,  442, 

443 

Baird,  Spencer  Fullerton,  birth,  con- 
temporaries, and  education,  270; 
Secretary  of  Smithsonian  Institu- 
tion, 271,  275;  other  scientists 
compared  with,  271,  275;  list  of 
works  between  1858  and  1870, 
272;  versatility,  273;  Commis- 
sioner of  U.  S.  Fish  and  Fisheries, 
273;  qualities  as  organizer,  277; 
honors  at  home  and  abroad,  279; 
domestic  life,  279;  death,  280;  also 
80,  83,  87,  313,  317,  392-394,  398, 
402 

Bakewell,  Robert,  105 

Bakewell,  Thomas  W.,  76 

Balanoglossus,  441 


Baldwin,  Loammi,  11-13 
Baldwin  apple,  origin  of,  13 
Ball,  Sir  Robert  S.,  363 
Ballistics,  Science  of,  18 
Bancroft,  Edward,  355 
Banks,  Sir  Joseph,  19,  97 
Barosaurus,  304 
Barrier  reefs,  see  Coral  reefs 
Barton,  Benjamin  S.,  63,  95 
Bartram,  William,  57,  61,  64,  68 
Bateson,  William,  441 
Batrachia,  publications  on,  by  E.  D. 

Cope,  328,  329 
Baur,  Dr.  George,  328,  329 
Bavaria,  Duke  of,  20,  41 
Bavaria,  experiences  of  Count  Rum- 
ford  in,  20,  27,  28;  see  also  Munich 
Beaman,  Miss  Mary,  163 
Bean,  Tarleton  Hoffman,  399,  401 
Beaufort,   North   Carolina,   marine 

laboratory  at,  441,  442,  444 
Beck,  Dr.  Romeyn,  121 
Bee,  Cell  of  the,  assertion  concerning, 

by  Lord  Brougham,  197 
Bell,  John  G.,  83,  272 
Bell,  Sir  Charles,  173  note 
Benjamin,  Dr.  Marcus,  391 
Berkeley,  George,  Bishop,  432 
Berkeley  scholarship,  Yale,  289 
Berlin,     Fisheries     Exhibition    at, 

1880,  394 
Berthelot,  Pierre  Eugene  Marcellin, 

17 

Beyrich  (Berlin),  290 

Bigelow,  Dr.  Jacob,  13 

Bigsby  gold  medal,  307,  337 

Billings,  Dr.  John  Shaw,  277 

Birds,  Kansas  Cretaceous,  300 

Birds  of  America,  by  J.  J.  Audubon, 
84 

Birds  of  North  America,  by  Baird, 
Brewer,  and  Ridge  way,  272 

Bibb,  The,  161 

Bibliographies  of  American  Natu- 
ralists, 402 

Black,  Dr.  Joseph,  98,  99 

Elaine,  James  Gillespie,  425 

Blake,  Henry  T.,  115 

Blake,  The,  401 

Blind-fish,  198 

Blum  (Heidelberg),  290 

Bonaparte,  Charles  Lucien,  78,  84, 

iSS. 
Bostwick,  A.  E.,  375 


INDEX 


459 


Botany,  science  of,  in  America  dur- 
ing Gray's  early  life,  213-217; 
systematization,  218;  see  also 
Gray,  Asa 

Bowdich,  Thomas  Edward,  188 

Bowen,  Miss  Susan,  163 

Bowen,  Prof.  Francis,  174 

Braun,  Dr.  August  Emil,  150,  151 

Brazil,  report  on  the  fishes  of,  153 

Brewer,  Thomas  Mayo,  272 

Brewster,  Sir  David,  101 

Brewster,  James,  109 

Brief  and  True  Report  of  the  New 
Found  Land  of  Virginia,  by 
Thomas  Harriot,  313 

Brinton,  Dr.  John  H.,  181  note 

Brongniart,  Alexander,  105,  114 

Brontotheridae,  299 

Brooks,  William  Keith,  birth,  427; 
maternal  influence,  428,  4555  an- 
cestry, 428;  education,  430,  432; 
influence  of  Bishop  Berkeley,  432; 
teaching,  433;  student  under 
Agassiz,  433;  assistant  in  Boston 
Society  of  Natural  History,  434; 
summer  school  in  Cleveland  es- 
tablished, 434;  work  on  Salpa, 
435-437;  fellow  and  professor  at 
Johns  Hopkins,  437,  438;  marine 
laboratories,  440,  441;  study  of 
the  oyster,  440,  447,  454;  expedi- 
tions to  the  Bahamas,  442,  443;  at 
Woods  Hole,  443;  researches  in 
animal  morphology,  444;  techni- 
cal and  popular  papers,  445;  pub- 
lic lectures,  446;  physical  handi- 
caps, 448;  personal  characteris- 
tics, 448;  methods  as  lecturer,  450; 
domestic  life,  452;  honors,  454; 
editorial  work,  454;  also  163 

Brougham,  Henry,  Lord,  and  the 
cell  of  the  bee,  197 

Brown,  Dr.  Francis  H.,  181  note 

Brown,  Thomas,  98 

Bruce,  Dr.  Archibald,  109 

Bruce  gold  medal,  384 

Brush,  Prof.  George  Jarvis,  236,  408 

Bryce,  Hon.  James,  387 

Buch,  Leopold  Von,  154,  262 

Buchan,  Earl  of,  101 

Buckland,  Francis  Trevelyan,  155 

Bunsen,  Christian  Karl  Josias, 
Chevalier,  290 

Burnett,  Waldo  Irving,  202,  205 


Calhoun,  John  Caldwell,  96 
Calorimeter,  experiments  with  a,  26, 

32,  49 

Cambrian  time,  258,  262 
Canby,  W.  M.,  220 
Canino,   Prince  of,  see  Bonaparte, 

Charles  Lucien 
Cannibalism   Among   the   American 

Aborigines,  by  Jeffries  Wyman,  182 
Cape  of  Good  Hope,  observatory  at, 

376 

Carnegie,  Institution,  377 
Carnot,  Sadi,  347 
Case,  Leonard,  435 
Cassin,  John,  80 
Catastrophism,  system  of,  256 
Catesby,  Mark,  51,  61,  68 
Cavendish,  Henry,  97 
Cavendish  Laboratory,  Cambridge, 

Eng.,  350 

Cayley,  Prof.  Arthur,  381 
Cenozoic    time,     mountain-making 

in,  256 

Cephalization,  principle  of,  246 
Challenger  Expedition,  401,  454 
Challenger  medal,  454 
Chamberlin,  Thomas  Crowder,  254 
Chamisso,   Louis   Charles  Adelaide 

de,  260,  436 
Champlain  group,  262 
Characteristics  of  Volcanoes,  by  J.  D. 

Dana,  242 
Chemistry,  as  a  study  at  Yale,  93;  at 

Edinburgh,  98-101;  advances  in 

the  science,  349;  see  also  Gibbs, 

Chesapeake  Zo5logical  Laboratory, 

440,  443,  444 

Chicago,  World's  Columbian  Expo- 
sition, 1893,  394 
Chimpanzee,  paper  on,  by  Savage 

and  Wyman,  186;  sec  also  Gorilla 
Chiriqui,    Province    of,    antiquities 

from,  306 

Choate,  Hon.  Rufus,  132 
Clarence,    Prince    William    Henry, 

Duke  of,  19 

Clapham  circle,  The,  97 
Clark,  Alvan,  and  Sons,  makers  of 

Washington  telescope,  378,  379 
Clark  telescope  at  Yale,  104 
Clarke,  Dr.  S.  F.,  446 
Classification,    Mineralogical,   basis 

of,  244 


460 


INDEX 


Clausius,   Rudolf  Julius   Emanuel, 

347 
Cockerell,  Theodore  Dru  Alison,  278, 


,393 
,odn 


Codman,  Dr.  John,  98 
Comstock,  Theodore  S.,  435 
Conant,  Dr.  F.  S.,  444 
Concave  grating,  invention  of,  415, 

416 

Conn,  Dr.  Herbert  William,  442 
Connecticut,  Report  of  a  geological 

survey  by  Percival  and  Shepard, 

106 

Conrads,  Timothy  Abbott,  273 
Contributions  to  the  Natural  History 

of  the  U.  S.,  by  J.  L.  R.  Agassiz, 

159 

Convection,  researches  in,  37 

Cooking  range,  33 

Coolidge,  Joseph,  86 

Cope,  Edward  Drinker,  ancestry 
and  birth,  314;  lack  of  early  train- 
ing, 316;  papers  on  herpetology, 
318,  visit  to  Europe,  319;  pro- 
fessor at  Haverford  College,  319; 
marriage,  319;  work  in  paleon- 
tology, 320,  321;  discoveries  of 
new  types,  322;  publications,  322, 
328,  329;  surveying  in  New  Mex- 
ico, 323;  private  expeditions,  325; 
domestic  life,  326;  lines  of  research 
pursued,  327;  classification  of 
fishes,  327;  and  of  amphibians, 
328;  contributions  to  fossil  mam- 
mals, 329;  reclassification  of  ungu- 
lates, 330;  philosophical  writings, 
331 ;  owner  and  editor  of  American 
Naturalist,  335;  professor  at  Uni- 
versity of  Pennsylvania,  336; 
honors,  337;  personal  qualities, 
338;  death,  340 

Cope,  Thomas  Pirn,  315 

Copernicus,  258 

"Cope's  Bible,"  322 

Copley  medal,  243,  360,  361,  384 

Coral  islands,  238,  267,  442 

Coral  reefs,  Darwin's  theory  con- 
cerning, 148,  258-260 

Corals  and  Coral  Islands,  by  J.  D. 
Dana,  242 

Corcoran  Gallery  of  Art,  138,  279 

Coues,  Elliott,  84,  203 

Cretaceous  period,  257 

Crocodile,  True,  in  Florida,  198 


Crocodilians,  Lizards,  and  Snakes  of 
North  America,  by  E.  D.  Cope,  329 

Crosby,  Dr.  W.  O.,  163 

Crustacea  of  the  Wilkes  Expedition, 
report  on,  239,  245-246 

Crystallography,  244-245 

Cuvier,  Georges  Leopold  Chretien 
Frederic  Dagobert,  Baron,  41,  48, 
50,  69,  153,  177,  194  note,  330 

Cuvier  prize,  308 

Cyclopima  spinosum,  154 

Dalton,  Dr.  John  Call,  45,  175 

Dana,  Edward  Salisbury,  115  note, 
236,  239,  245,  264 

Dana,  James  Dwight,  birth  and  an- 
cestry, 233;  early  influences,  234, 
235;  naval  schoolmaster,  235; 
assistant  to  Prof.  Silliman,  236; 
System  of  Mineralogy,  236;  mem- 
ber of  Wilkes  Exploring  Expedi- 
tion, 236;  preparation  of  reports, 
239,  245;  marriage,  239;  editor  of 
American  Journal  of  Science,  240; 
Darwin  compared  with,  241 ;  phys- 
ical weakness,  242;  publications, 
242;  death,  243;,  honors,  243; 
mineralogical  classification,  244; 
principle  of  cephalization,  246;  at- 
titude toward  evolution,  248; 
work  in  geology,  251;  doctrine  of 
permanence  of  continents  and 
oceans,  252;  and  of  mountain- 
making,  254;  study  of  coral  reefs, 
258;  and  of  volcanoes,  261;  "Ta- 
conic  Question,"  262;  religious 
views,  264, 266;  personal  character, 
266;  also  104,  115  note,  313 

Darwin,  Charles  Robert,  Origin  of 
Species,  193;  J.  D.  Dana  com- 
pared with,  241;  theory  concern- 
ing coral  reefs,  258,  259;  on 
toothed  birds,  301;  also  168,  188 
note,  236,  249,  270,  272,  331,  332, 

43i 

Darwiniana,  by  Asa  Gray,  226 
Davy,  Sir  Humphrey,  44,  95,  97 
Day,  Dr.  Jeremiah,  102,  115 
De    Blainville,    see    Ducrotay    de 

Blainville,  Henri  Marie 
De  Candolle,  Augustin  Pyrame,  219 
Deep-sea  fishes,  works  on,  401 
De  Kay,  James  E.,  273 
Delano,  Columbus,  294 


INDEX 


461 


Des  Moines,  Iowa,  solar  eclipse  of 

1869,  377 

Dewar,  James,  37,  45 
Dinocerata,  monograph  on  the,  by 

O.  C.  Marsh,  300 
Dinosaurs    of   North    America,    by 

O.  C.  Marsh,  302 
D'Orbigny,    see    Orbigny,    Alcides 

Dessalines,  d' 

Drift,  glacial  theory  of,  263 
Dry    Tortugas,    Florida,    Carnegie 

Station  at,  444 
Du  Chaillu,  Paul  Belloni,  188  note, 

190 
Ducrotay  de  Blainville,  Henri  Marie, 

177 

Dumeril,  Andre  Marie  Constant,  177 
Duncan,  William,  53-55,  60 
D  wight,  Prof.  A.  W.,  in 
D  wight,  Dr.   Timothy,  90-92,  94, 

1 06 

Dwight,  Dr.  Timothy,  Jr.,  103,  116 
Dynamo,  principles  of  construction 

127 

Economic  value  of  animals,  274 

Edwards,  George,  61,  68 

Edinburgh,  University  of,  men  and 
conditions  at  beginning  of  igth 
century,  98;  discussion  of  Wer- 
nerian  theory,  100 

Egyptian  scarabs,  306 

Ehrenberg,  Christian  Gottfried,  290 

Elector  Palatine,  Karl  Theodor, 
Duke  of  Bavaria,  20,  41 

Electric  waves,  discovery  of,  357 

Electricity,  experiments  by  Joseph 
Henry,  123 

Electrochronograph,  1 29 

Elementary  Principles  of  Statistical 
Mechanics,  by  J.  W.  Gibbs,  357 

Elements  of  Botany,  by  Asa  Gray, 
215,  224 

Emmons,  Ebenezer,  262 

Eosaurus,  discovery  of,  288,  289 

Equidas,  see  Horse 

Equilibrium  of  Heterogeneous  Sub- 
stances, On  the,  by  J.  W.  Gibbs, 
350-353 

Evolution,  attitude  of  scientists  to- 
ward, 168,  193,  248,  331;  theory 
of,  298;  publications  on,  by  E.  D. 
Cope,  332,  333 

Exchanges,  system  of,  271,  276 


Explosives,  Science  of,  researches  in, 
17,  18 

Faraday,  Michael,  44,  126,  127 
Farlow,  Dr.  William  Gilson,  183  note, 

221 

Farrington,  Prof.,  265,  266 
"Father  of  American  Ornithology," 

51 

Faxon,  Walter,  163,  446 
Fernald,     Prof.     Merritt    Lyndon, 

163 

Fewkes,  Walter,  163 
Findlay,  A.  G.,  355 
Fireless  cooker,  32 
Fireplaces,  correct  proportions  for, 

,32 

Fish  hatcheries,  see  Food-fishes 
Fish  Hawk,  The,  401 
Fisher,  Prof.  George  P.,  89,  105 
Fisher,  Prof.  Irving,  383 
Fisheries  Exhibitions,  394 
Fishes,  classification   of,  by  E.  D. 

Cope,  327 
Fishes  of  North  and  Middle  America, 

by  Jordan  and  Evermann,  398 
Fishes  of  the  Bermudas,  Catalogue  of, 

by  G.  B.  Goode,  395,  399 
Flora  of  North  America,  by  Torrey 

and  Gray,  216,  218,  219 
Flourens,  Marie  Jean  Pierre,  177 
Flying-fish,  The,  see  Wilkes  Explor- 
ing Expedition 
Fog-signals,  141 
Folsom,  Norton,  203 
Food-fishes,  Baird's  studies  among, 

272,  274;  hatching  stations,  274; 

also  399,  400 
Foresters,  The,  by  Alexander  Wilson, 

60 

Forster,  Johann  Reinhold,  51,  6 1 
Fort  Wool,  Va.,  see  Chesapeake  Zoo- 
logical Laboratory 
Foundations  of  Zoology,  by  W.  K. 

Brooks,  432,  445 
Four  Rocks  of  the  New  Haven  Region, 

by  J.  D.  Dana,  263 
Franklin,  Benjamin,  95,   119,   123, 

130,  384,  386 
Frazer,  Dr.  Persifor,  336 
Fresh-water  Shell-mounds  of  the  St. 

Johns  River,  Fla.,  by  Jeffries  Wy- 

man,  194  note 
Frigate,  copper-sheathed,  19 


462 


INDEX 


Funafuti  Island,  261;  see  also  Coral 
Islands 

Gadsden,  Bishop,  96 

Galvanic  cells,  357 

Garfield,  James  Abram,  387 

Garman,  Samuel,  163 

Garrison,  Dr.  Fielding  H.,  362 

Gastman,  E.  A.,  163 

Gaudry,  Prof.  Albert,  308 

Geanticlines,  255 

Genealogical     monograph,     Model, 

395 
Genera,  On  the  Origin  of,  by  E.  D 

Cope,  331 

Genus  Salpa,  by  W.  K.  Brooks,  437 
Geographical  evolution,  257 
Geology,  Science  of,  Dana's  contri- 
bution to,-  251 
Geology   of   the   Wilkes   Exploring 

Expedition,  report  on,  239,  259 
Geosynclines,  255,  256 
Germain,  Sir  George,  17,  19 
Gibbon,  Edward,  20 
Gibbs,    Col.    George,    collection   of 

minerals,  105;  also  109 
Gibbs,  Josiah  Willard,  ancestry, 
birth  and  education,  346;  tutor  of 
Latin,  347;  student  in  Europe, 
347;  influence  of  Clausius,  347; 
professor  at  Yale,  348;  publica- 
tion of  first  paper,  348;  "thermo- 
dynamical  surface,"  349;  lays 
foundation  of  new  science,  350; 
slow  recognition  by  scientists,  350; 
contributions  to  theory  of  light 
and  of  galvanic  cells,  357;  final 
work  and  death,  357;  Count  Rum- 
ford  compared  with,  342;  qualities 
as  a  teacher,  358;  personal  char- 
acteristics, 360;  honors,  361;  esti- 
mates of  his  genius,  361;  see  also 
Gibbs'  Phase  Rule;  Vector  Analy- 
sis 

Gibbs,  Walcott,  13 
Gibbs  Phase  Rule,  354,  355 
Gibraltar,  solar  eclipse  of  1870,  377 
Gildersleeve,  Prof.  Basil  L.,  439 
Gill,  Theodore,  315,  317,  326,  327, 

331,  334,  397,  40i 
Gilliss,  James  M.,  371 
Gilman,  Daniel  Coit,  411,  413,  417, 

437,  440 
Girard,  Charles,  402 


Glaciers,    theory   of   "drift,"    263; 

also  155,  156,  168,  290 
Goeppert  (Breslau),  291 
Goode,    George   Brown,   birth  and 
education,  391;  in  service  of  U.  S. 
Fish  Commission  and  of  Wesleyan 
University,  392;  association  with 
Baird,  393;  Assistant  Secretary  of 
Smithsonian  Institution,  393;  as 
museum  administrator,  393,  394; 
interest  in  biography  and  geneal- 
ogy, 3945  offices  held,  395;  char- 
acteristics   and    influence,     396; 
Oceanic    Ichthyology,    398;    other 
papers  and  monographs,  399,  401 ; 
work  on  loth  Census,  400;  deep- 
sea     explorations,    401;     biblio- 
graphical   work,    402;    marriage, 
402;  personal  qualities,  402;  also 
269,  277,  280 
Gorham,  Prof.  John,  98 
Gorilla,  recognition  as  a  new  species, 
1 86;   history   of   discovery,    188; 
first  papers  on,  186,  190,  191 
Gould,  Augustus  Addison,  180,  189 
Government  science,  system  of,  143 
Grant,  Gen.  Ulysses  Simpson,  273 
Grassman,  Hermann  Giinther,  356 
Gray,   Asa,   birth,    211;   education, 
212;  "call"  to  botany,  213;  mak- 
ing an  herbarium,  214;  acquaint- 
ance of  Dr.  John  Torrey,  214,  216; 
Elements    of    Botany    published, 
215;  curator  and  professor,  215- 
217;  visits  to  European  herbaria, 
216;  work  in  American  systematic 
botany,  218,  219;  Synoptical  Flora 
of    North     America,     219,     227; 
facility  for  work,    220;   qualities 
as  teacher,    220;  work  as  critic, 
224;    expounder    of    Darwinism, 
226,   248;  personal  life  and  reli- 
gious    convictions,      228;     testi- 
monial, 230;  death,  231;  also  157, 
178,  184,  187,  193-195,  243  note, 

237 

Greenwich  observatory,  376 
Gregory,  Dr.  James,  98 
Greville,  Robert  Kaye,  97 
Grube  (Breslau),  291 
Gunpowder,  see  Explosives,  Science 

of 

Guyot,  Arnold,  158,  264 
Guyot,  Frederick,  163 


INDEX 


463 


Hall,  Asaph,  378 

Hallo  well,  Miss  Susan,  163 

Hamilton,  Sir  William,  356 

Hamlin,  Hannibal,  Senator,  378 

Hampton,  Va.,  Marine  laboratory 
at,  441 

Handbook  of  Invertebrate  Zoology, 
by  W.  K.  Brooks,  446 

Hardy,  Sir  Charles,  19 

Hare,  Robert,  95,  96,  101 

Harlan,  Richard,  79 

Harriot,  Thomas,  313,  394 

Harris,  Edward,  79,  83 

Hartmann,  Robert,  188  note 

Hassler,  The,  161 

Hassler,  Dr.  Charles  A.,  386 

Hassler,  Ferdinand  R.,  387 

Ha  veil  (London),  80 

Hay,  Oliver  Perry,  326  note 

Hay  den,  Ferdinand  V.,  321 

Hayden  memorial  medal,  337 

Hay  den  Survey,  Reports  of,  292, 
322,  324;  see  also  U.  S.  Geological 
Survey 

Heat,  discoveries  concerning,  22,  26, 
31-34,  37,  39;  mechanical  equiva- 
lent of,  414,  415 

Helmholtz,  Hermann  Ludwig  Ferdi- 
nand, 347,  386,  411 

Henry,  Joseph,  birth  and  education, 
119;  love  of  romance,  120;  interest 
in  science,  120;  experiments  with 
steam,  122;  surveying  expedition, 
123;  professor  of  mathematics, 
123;  researches  in  electricity,  123; 
attitude  toward  Professors  Morse 
and  Faraday,  125,  127;  first  tele- 
graphic message,  126;  observa- 
tions of  magnetic  storm,  126; 
self-induction  of  magnetic  current, 
127;  experiments  on  properties  of 
matter,  128;  solar  radiation,  128; 
inventor  of  electrochronograph, 
129;  first  Secretary  of  Smithsonian 
Institution,  130,  132,  133;  antag- 
onism concerning  administration, 
134;  meteorological  observations, 
140;  services  to  Lighthouse  Board, 
140;  phenomena  of  sound,  141; 
illness  and  death,  142;  intellectual 
qualities,  144;  interview  with  a 
spiritualist,  145;  also  no,  275, 
307,  367 

Heredity,  by  W,  K.  Brooks,  445 


Herpetology,  North  American, 
works  on,  by  E.  D.  Cope,  328, 

329 

Hersey  Professor  of  Anatomy,  Har- 
vard, 178  and  note 

Hertz,  Heinrich,  357 

Hesperornis  regalis,  see  Toothed 
birds 

Hilgard,  Julius  E.,  368 

Hill,  George  W.,  387 

Hill,  Prof.  John,  98 

Hilliard,  Henry  N.,  132 

History  of  North  American  Birds,  by 
Baird,  Brewer,  and  Ridgeway,  272 

Hoff,  Van't,  Prof.,  355 

Holden,  Edward  S.,  379,  387 

Holder,  Dr.  Joseph  Bassett,  147 

Hooker,  Sir  Joseph,  219 

Hope,  Dr.  Thomas  Charles,  99,  100 

Horse,  evolution  of  the,  292,  294; 
fossil,  292,  299 

Horsford,  Eben,  13 

How  Plants  Grow,  by  Asa  Gray,  223 

Howel,  Prof.  W.  H.,  449 

Hubbard,  Prof.  J.  S.,  371 

Humboldt,  Karl  Wilhelm,  Baron, 
114,  153,  154,  ig^note 

Humphrey,  Prof.  James  Ellis,  444 

Hutton,  Dr.  James,  100 

Huxley,  Thomas  Henry,  on  toothed 
birds,  301;  also  188  note,  206,  270, 
294,  296,  310,  330,  437,  438 

Huyghens  gold  medal,  384 

Hyatt,  Dr.  Alpheus,  331,  335,  434, 
446 

Hydrarchos,  fiction  of,  197 

Hydroidea,  246 

Ichthyornis,  see  Toothed  birds 

Ichthyosaurus,  302 

Igneous  rocks  and  the  Phase  Rule, 

356 

Indian  Ring,  see  Sioux  Indians 
Ingersoll,  Ernest,  163 
International  Congress  of  Arts  and 

Sciences    at    World's    Fair,    St. 

Louis,  380 
International  Congress  of  Zoologists, 

Cambridge,  Mass.,  309 
International   Geological   Congress, 

St.  Petersburg,  309 
Investigator,  The,  401 
Iron  carbides  and  the  Phase  Rule, 

356 


464 


INDEX 


James,  Prof.  Robert,  100 

James,  Prof.  William,  183  note,  451 

Jefferson,  Thomas,  President,  61 

[effries,  Dr.  John,  172 

[oralemon,  Mrs.  Mary  Beaman,  163 

[ordan,  Dr.  David  Starr,  161 

foule,  James  Prescott,  24,  414 

Judd,  Prof.  John  W.,  264 

Judd,  Orange,  392,  402 

Jurassic  period,  257 

Kansas  Cretaceous  birds,  300 

Kant,  Emanuel,  357 

Kellner,  Prof.,  17 

Kelvin,  William  Thomson,  Baron, 
350,  363 

Kemp,  John,  33 

Kepler,  Johann,  266 

King,  Clarence,  308 

King,  Dr.  Helen  Dean,  337 

King,  Rufus,  42 

Kingsley,  Prof.  J.  L.,  102,  115 

Kirschoff  (Heidelberg),  290,  347 

Klinkerfues,  H.,  356 

Konigsburg,  observatory  of,  376 

Kotzebue,  August  Friedrich  Ferdi- 
nand, 436 

Ldbyrinthodonts ,  Analogies  which  ex- 
ist between  the  Structure  of  the 
Teeth  of  the  Lepidostei  and  those  of 
the,  by  Jeffries  Wyman,  205 

Lagrange,  Joseph  Louis,  48 

Lamarck,  Jean  Baptiste  Pierre 
Antoine  de  Monet,  Chevalier,  249, 

33i  332 

Langley  Samuel  Pierpont,  280,  402 
Latham,  John,  68 
Launching  of  a  University,  by  D.  C. 

Oilman,  411 
Laurens,  Henry,  20 
Lavoisier,  Antoine  Laurent,  99 
Law  of  Trituberculy,  330 
Lawson,  Alexander,  57,  61,  62,  68 
Lea,  Isaac,  273 
Le  Chatelier,  351,  353 
Le  Conte,  Joseph,  183  note,  251,  254 

note,  273 

Lee,  Thomas,  184 
Leibnitz,  Gottfried  Wilhelm,  Baron, 

254 

Leidy,  Joseph,  293,  313 

Lepidostei,  Analogies  which  exist  be- 
tween the  Structure  of  the  Teeth  of, 


and  those  of  the  Labyrinthodonts, 

by  Jeffries  Wyman,  205 
Lesley,  Prof.  J.  P.,  266 
Leslie,  Sir  John,  101 
Le  Sueur,  Charles  A.,  79 
Leuckhart,    Karl    Georg    Friedrich 

Rudolf,  150 

Lewis  and  Clark  Expedition,  76 
Library  of  Congress,  137;  see  also 

Smithsonian  Institution 
Lick  Observatory,  378 
Life  of  a  Fossil  Hunter,  by  C.  H. 

Sternberg,  325  note 
Light,    electromagnetic    theory    of, 

.357 

Lighthouse  Board,  1852,  141 
Lincoln  Hall,  Washington,  138;  see 

also  Smithsonian  Institution 
Lingula,  440 
Liquified  air,  37 

"Little  Academy,  The,"  151,  152 
Lizars,  W.,  80 
Loewy,  Maurice,  373 
London,  Fisheries  Exhibition,  1883, 

394 
Long    Island,    depredations    upon, 

1782,  19 

Longet,  Francois  Achille,  177 
Lowell,  John,  Jr.,  176 
Lowell,  John  Amory,  176 
Lowell  Institute,  108,  156,  176 
Lucayan  Indians,  by  W.  K.  Brooks, 

445 

Lyell,  Sir  Charles,  114,  155,  253, 
259,  261,  290,  304 

MacClure,  William,  105 

MacCrady  (Charleston),  434 

MacGillivray,  William,  85 

Maclean,  Dr.  (Princeton),  96,  99 

Madrid,  Columbian  Historical  Ex- 
position, i8Q2-Q3,  394 

Magnetic  storm,  first  observation  of, 
126 

Magneto-electricity,  production  of, 
126 

Majendie  (Paris),  177 

Mammalia,  Origin  of  the  Hard  Parts 
of  the,  by  E.  D.  Cope,  330 

Mammals  of  North  America,  by  S.  F. 
Baird,  272 

Mammoth  Cave,  198 

Manatee,  198 

Mantell,  Dr.  G.  A.,  105,  114 


INDEX 


465 


Manual  of  Botany,  by  Asa  Gray,  214, 

222 

Manual  of  Geology,  by  J.  D.  Dana, 
242,  243,  249,  251,  255,  257  note, 
262,  264,  265,  267 

Marine  Laboratories,  see  Beaufort, 
No.  Carolina;  Chesapeake  Zoologi- 
cal Laboratory;  Hampton,  Va., 
Nassau,  Bahama  Islands;  Peni- 
kese  Island;  Port  Henderson, 
West  Indies 
Marine  signals,  19 
Marsh,  Caleb,  283,  284 
Marsh,  Othniel  Charles,  ancestry 
and  birth,  283;  early  training, 
284;  enters  Phillips  Academy, 
285;  interest  in  mineralogy,  287; 
discovery  of  Eosaurus,  288;  ex- 
peditions to  Canada,  289;  honors, 
289;  student  in  Europe,  290,  291; 
abandons  miscellaneous  work  for 
vertebrate  paleontology,  290;  pro- 
fessor at  Yale,  291;  plans  for 
systematic  exploration  of  the 
West,  292;  evolution  of  the  horse, 
292,  294;  private  expeditions,  293; 
encounter  with  Sioux  Indians, 
294;  appointment  to  U.  S.  Geolog- 
ical Survey,  297;  contributions  to 
scientific  literature,  299-302;  dis- 
covery of  toothed  birds,  300;  and 
of  pterodactyls,  301;  unfinished 
work,  303;  Curator  at  Yale,  304; 
interest  in  archeology  and  ethnol- 
ogy, 305;  honors,  306-308;  per- 
sonal qualities,  310;  adversity, 
311;  death,  312;  also  320 
Martin,  Prof.  Henry  Newell,  438 
Martius,  Karl  Friedrich  Philipp 

Von,  152  ^ 

Maryland  Fish  Commission,  440 
Mason,  Otis  Tufton,  277,  396 
Maximilian  II,  King  of  Bavaria,  21 
Maxwell,  Clerk,  349,  350,  411 
Mayer,    Dr.    Alfred   Goldsborough, 

163,  453 

Mayor,  Dr.  Matthias,  150 
Mechanical  equivalent  of  heat,  414, 

4i5 

Meehan,  Thomas,  224 
Meigs,  Prof.  Josiah,  94 
Mendenhall,  Prof.,  411,  421 
Menhaden,  monograph  on,  by  G.  B. 

Goode,  399 


Mesozoic    time,    mountain-making 

in,  256 
Metamorphosis  ofSiredon  into  Ambly- 

stoma,  by  O.  C.  Marsh,  292 
Meteorological       observations      at 

Smithsonian  Institution,  140 
Michaux,  Andre,  63 
Michie,  Gen.,  411 
Middlesex  Canal,  12 
Military  Gardens  in  Bavaria,  28 
Miller,  Hugh,  245 
Milne-Edwards,    Henri,    114,    156, 

177 

Minot,  Charles  Sedgwick,  163 
Mitchell,  Dr.  Silas  Weir,  177,  203 
Mohs,  Friedrich,  243 
Monograph    of    the    Aye- Aye,    by 

Richard  Owen,  177,  193 
Moreau,  Jean  Victor,  Gen.,  41 
Morehouse,  George  R.,  177 
Morse,  Edward  Sylvester,  163,  203, 

335,  434 

Morse,  Samuel  Finley  Breese,  1 25 

Moon,  see  Astronomy 

Mosasurs,  see  Sea-serpents 

Motion  of  the  Moon,  by  Simon  New- 
comb,  388 

Moulton,  C.  W.,  254 

Mountain-making,  process  of,  254- 

257 
Muhlenberg,  Gotthilf  Henry  Ernst, 

63 

Munich,  9,  18,  21 

Murchison,  Sir  Roderick  Impey,  155 
Murray,  Dr.  John,  100,  260,  261 
Museum  Administration,  Principles 

of,  by  G.  B.  Goode,  393 
Museums  of  the  Future,  by  G.  B. 

Goode,  393 

Nassau,    Bahama    Islands,    marine 

laboratory  at,  443 
Natural  History  of  Aquatic  Animals, 

by  G.  B.  Goode,  400 
Natural  Science,  334 
Natural  selection,  226 
Naumann,  Karl  Friedrich,  245 
Nautical  Almanac,  368,  373,  381   • 
"Negro  Question,"  191 
Neo-Lamarckian  school,  331 
Neurology,  Wyman's  work  in,  196 
New  Brunswick,  expeditions  to,  289 
Newberry,  John  Strong,  313 
Newcomb,  John  Burton,  364 


466 


INDEX 


Newcomb,  Simon,  birth  and  parent- 
age, 363;  early  life,  365;  computer 
for  Nautical  Almanac  and  in 
charge  of  office,  368,  372;  expedi- 
tion to  Saskatchewan,  370;  ap- 
pointment at  Naval  Observatory, 
370;  senior  professor  of  mathemat- 
ics in  U.  S.  Navy,  372;  observa- 
tions on  the  moon  and  of  solar 
eclipses,  376,  377;  grant  from 
Carnegie  Institution,  377;  super- 
intends construction  of  Washing- 
ton telescope,  377;  in  charge  of 
expeditions  to  observe  transits  of 
Venus,  378;  agent  for  Lick  and 
Pulkowa  observatories,  379;  Pres- 
ident of  International  Congress 
of  Arts  and  Sciences,  380;  volumi- 
nous writings,  381;  contributions 
to  political  economy,  382;  writer 
of  fiction,  383;  honors,  384-386; 
domestic  life,  387;  death  and 
burial,  389 

Newton,  Prof.  Hubert  Anson,  361 
Nobel,  Alfred  Bernhard,  17 
North  America,  Continent  of,  Dana's 

theory  of  development,  257 
North  American  Rhynchosporeae,  by 

Asa  Gray,  215 
North  American  Serpents,  by  S.  F. 

Baird,  272 

Norton,  Sidney  Augustus,  430 
Nova  Scotia,   expeditions  to,    288, 

289;  also  365 
Nut  tall,  Thomas,  69 

Observations  on  Crania,  by  Jeffries 

Wyman,  192 
Oceanic  Ichthyology,  by  Goode  and 

Bean,  398,  401 

Octoplex  printing  telegraph,  425 
Odontornithes,  or  The  Extinct  Toothed 

Birds  of  America,  by  O.  C.  Marsh, 

300 

Olmsted,  Denison,  109 
On    Symmetry    and    Homology    in 

Limbs,  by  Jeffries  Wyman,   195 

note,  196 
Opossum,  Osteology  and  Myology  of 

the,  by  Elliott  Coues,  203 
Orbigny,  Alcide  Dessalines  d',  158 
Ord,  Charles,  54 
Ord,  George,  61-63,  65-68,  79 
Ordovician  time,  257-258,  262 


Oregon,  The,  see  Wilkes   Exploring 

Expedition 
Origin  of  Species,  by  C.  R.  Darwin, 

193,  226,  249 
Origin  of  the  Fittest,  by  E.  D.  Cope, 

332 
Ornithological  Biography,   by  J.   J. 

Audubon,  82,  84,  85 
Osborn,  Henry  Fairfield,  315,  316, 

319,327,328,330 
Ostwald,  Felix  Leopold,  351,  361 
Owen,  Sir  Richard,  177,  188  note, 

189,  193 

Owen,  Robert  Dale,  132 
Oyster  industry  of  Maryland,  440, 

447 
Oyster,  The,  by  W.  K.  Brooks,  447 

Pacific  Railroad  Surveys,  313 
Packard,  Alpheus  Spring,  187,  194, 

33i,  335 

Packets  between  Philadelphia  and 
Liverpool,  first  line  inaugurated, 

3i5 
Paleontological  Discovery,  History  and 

Methods  of,  by  O.  C.  Marsh,  307 
Paleozoic  time,  mountain-making  in, 

256,  257 
Pangenesis,    Provisional   Hypothesis 

of,  by  W.  K.  Brooks,  445 
Paris,  Observatory  at,  376 
Parkman,  Dr.  George,  177,  197 
Parmentier,  Antoine  Augustin,  50 
Paumotu  Islands,  238,  258 
Peabody,  George,  181,  285,  286,  288, 

291 
Peabody,  George  Augustus,  185  and 

note 

Peabody  Academy  of  Science,  304 
Peabody  Museum,   Harvard,    180- 

182,  304;  Yale,  105,  304 
Peacock,  The,  see  Wilkes  Exploring 

Expedition 

Peale,  Charles  Willson,  63 
Peale,  Rembrandt,  63,  80,  273 
Peirce,  Benjamin,  369 
Penikese  Island,  161-163,  433,  439 
Pennybacker,  Isaac  Samuals,  132 
Percival,  J.  G.,  106 
Perkins,  Dr.  G.  A.,  190 
Permanence     of     continents     and 

oceans,  Doctrine  of,  252,  259 
Peters,     Wilhelm    Karl     Hartwig, 

290 


INDEX 


467 


Philadelphia,  Centennial  Exhibition, 

1876,  278,  336,  394,  397 
Physical  chemistry,  science  of,  344, 

349,  350 
Physics,  progress  of,  343;  see  also 

Gibbs,  Josiah  Willard 
Pictet,  Prof.  Adolphe,  10, 14 
Pierpont,  John,  96 
Pike,  Capt.  Nicholas,  61 
Plan  of  Creation,  lectures  by  J.  L.  R. 

Agassiz,  156 
Playfair,  John,  98 
Plotus  anhinga,  see  Snake-bird 
Poland,  King  of,  21 
Polydactyle  Horses,  by  O.  C.  Marsh, 

299 
Polynesian  Archipelago,  exploration 

of,  238;  see  also  Wilkes  Exploring 

Expedition 

Port  Antonio,  Jamaica,  444 
Port  Henderson,  West  Indies,  labora- 
tory at,  443 
Porpoise,  The,  see  Wilkes  Exploring 

Expedition 

Porter,  Rev.  Noah,  92 
Potato  introduced  into  France,  50 
Pourtales,  Louis  Francois,  Count  de, 

163 

Prevost,  Constant,  254 
Priestley,  Dr.  Joseph,  96 
Prussia,  King  of,  152,  156,  157 
Pteranodontia,  see  Pterodactyls 
Pterodactyls,  301 
Pterosauria,  see  Pterodactyls 
Pulkowa,  observatory  at,  376,  378, 

379;  also  384 
Putnam,  Frederick  Ward,  335 

Quadrupeds  of  America,  by  Audubon 
and  Bachman,  82,  84 

Quaternions  of  Sir  William  Hamil- 
ton, 356 

Race  problem,  Wyman's  views  on, 
191 

Radiation,  experiments  on,  34 

Rainbow  trout,  274;  see  also  Food- 
fishes 

Raleigh,  Sir  Walter,  313,  394 

Rattlesnake,  The,  198 

Red  Cloud  Agency,  294 

Relief,  The,  see  Wilkes  Exploring 
Expedition 

Rennel,  James,  97 


Reptilia  and  Amphibia,  publications 
on,  by  E.  D.  Cope,  328,  329 

Researches  among  the  Fossil  Fishes, 
by  J.  L.  R.  Agassiz,  153,  1 54 

Respiration  of  Turtles,  by  Mitchell 
and  Morehouse,  177 

Review  of  North  American  Birds,  by 
S.  F.  Baird,  272 

Rhynchosporeas,  North  American, 
by  Asa  Gray,  215 

Rickoff,  Andrew  J.,  435 

Ridge  way,  Robert,  272 

Rittenhouse,  David,  95,  130,  387 

Ritter,  Heinrich,  114 

Robins,  Benjamin,  18 

Robison,  John,  99 

Roemer,  (Breslau),  291 

Rogers,  Prof.  William  B.,  193,  308 

Roozeboom,  Bakhuis,  353,  355 

Rose,  Gustav,  114,  244  note 

Rose,  Heinrich,  114 

Rothrock,  Dr.  J.  T.,  183  note,  221 

Rowland,  Henry  Augustus,  birth 
and  education,  406;  distaste  for 
classics,  406,  420;  teacher  of 
chemistry  and  physics,  408;  early 
inventions,  409;  professor  at  Johns 
Hopkins,  411;  sent  abroad,  411; 
meeting  with  Dr.  Ira  Remsen, 
412;  laboratory  equipment,  412; 
personal  qualities,  413,  418,  421; 
research  work,  415;  concave  grat- 
ing, 415,  416;  relations  with  stu- 
dents, 418;  marriage,  420;  love  of 
music  and  sports,  422;  fatal 
malady,  424;  invention  of  octoplex 
printing  telegraph,  425;  attitude 
toward  politics  and  religion,  425; 
honors,  426 

Royal  Institution,  London,  9,  43 

Rozier,  Ferdinand,  74 

Rumford,  Benjamin  Thompson, 
Count,  birth  and  early  education, 
10 ;  life  as  student  and  teacher,  12; 
marriage,  14;  introduction  to 
Gov.  Wentworth  and  results,  15; 
role  of  landed  proprietor,  15;  sent 
to  England,  15;  becomes  member 
of  Colonial  Office,  17;  enters 
British  army,  19;  devises  new  code 
of  marine  signals  and  plans  a  frig- 
ate, 19;  elected  Fellow  of  Royal 
Society,  19;  becomes  Secretary 
for  Georgia  and  Under  Secretary 


468 


INDEX 


of  State,  19;  gains  favor  of  Duke 
of  Bavaria,  20;  knighted  by 
George  III,  21;  honors  received 
in  Bavaria,  21;  name  of  Rumford 
taken,  21;  discoveries  concerning 
heat  and  heating  and  quotations 
from  papers  on  the  subject,  22,  32; 
characteristics  as  scientist,  26; 
literary  style,  27;  reforms  in 
Bavarian  army,  27;  philanthropic 
work  in  Bavaria  and  England, 
29-33;  researches  on  clothing,  36; 
and  on  convection,  37;  gifts  to 
scientific  societies,  39;  personal 
appearance  and  qualities,  40;  re- 
turn to  Munich  and  in  command 
of  Bavarian  troops,  41;  establish- 
ment of  Royal  Institution,  Lon- 
don, 43;  introduction  to  Napo- 
leon, 46;  second  marriage,  46; 
researches  in  light,  48;  surface 
tension,  49;  death,  50;  j.  W.  Gibbs 
compared  with,  342;  also  22,  414, 

4i5 

Rumford,  Essex  County,  Mass.,  14 
"  Rumford  Apparatus,"  18 
Rumford    fund,    of    the    American 

Academy,  39,  40;  of  the  Royal 

Society,  39,  361,  415 
Rumford  Historical  Association,  10 
Rumford  photometer,  48 
Rumford  professorship  at  Harvard, 

J3 

"Rumford  roaster,"  32 
Rush,  Dr.  Benjamin,  95 
Rush,  Hon.  Richard,  131 
Ryder,  John  Adam,  331 

St.  Hilaire,  Auguste  de,  177, 194  note 

St.  Louis,  World's  Fair,  Interna- 
tional Congress  of  Arts  and 
Sciences  at,  380 

St.  Stanislaus,  Order  of,  conferred 
upon  Count  Rumford,  21 

Salisbury,  Rollin  D.,  254 

Salpa,  investigations  on,  by  W.  K. 
Brooks,  435-437,  445 

Saskatchewan,  astronomical  expedi- 
tion to,  1860,  370 

Savage,  Dr.  Thomas  S.,  work  on  the 
chimpanzee,  186-188;  priority  of 
claim,  189;  also  203 

Say,  Thomas,  63,  313 

Schubert  prize,  385 


Schreinemakers,  F.  A.  H.,  355 
Science,  first  public  lectures  on,  109 
Scientific  periodicals  early  in  1800, 

log 
Scientific  research,  publications  on, 

by  Smithsonian  Institution,  139 
Sclater,  Philip  Lutley,  402 
Scott,  Prof.  J.  G.,  163 
Scrope,  George  Poulett,  261 
Sea-cow,  see  Manatee 
Sea-gull,  The,  see  Wilkes  Exploring 

Expedition 
Sea-serpent,  198,  302 
Secchi,  Angelo,  129 
Selby,  Prideaux  John,  80 
Self-induction    of    electric    current, 

127 

Seybert,  Dr.  Adam,  105 
Shattuck,  Miss  Lydia  W.,  163 
Shepard,  C.  U.,  106 
Sherman,  Gen.  William  Tecumseh, 

3.87 

Silliman,  Benjamin,  ancestry  and 
birth,  91;  early  life,  92;  admitted 
to  the  bar,  92;  tutor  at  Yale,  92; 
interest  in  science,  93;  account  of 
introduction  of  study  of  chemistry 
at  Yale,  93;  study  in  Philadelphia, 
95;  first  course  of  lectures,  96; 
goes  to  Europe  to  purchase  appa- 
ratus, 97;  narrative  of  travels  pub- 
lished, 97;  student  at  University 
of  Edinburgh,  98-101;  discussion 
of  Wernerian  theory,  100;  return 
to  Yale,  102;  characteristics  as 
teacher  of  undergraduates,  102; 
and  as  a  colleague,  104;  his  meagre 
collections,  105;  purchase  of  the 
Gibbs  Cabinet,  105;  Trumbull 
collection,  106;  and  the  Clark 
telescope,  106;  establishment  of 
Yale  Medical  School,  106;  and 
Sheffield  Scientific  School,  107; 
his  pupils  and  assistants,  107  note; 
popularity  as  lecturer,  108,  109; 
inauguration  of  Lowell  Institute, 
1 08;  his  real  distinction,  109; 
estimates  of  scientific  work,  in, 
116;  later  travels,  113;  meeting 
with  scientists  abroad,  114;  pa- 
triotism, 114;  domestic  life,  115; 
death,  116;  contributions  to 
science,  89;  reminiscences  of  D.  C. 
Gilman,  90;  also  235,  236,  240,  290 


INDEX 


469 


Silliman,  Benjamin,  Jr.,  115  note 

Silliman,  Gold  Selleck,  91 

Silliman's  Journal,  see  American 
Journal  of  Science 

Sillimari's  Travels,  90,  113 

Silurian  time,  262 

Sioux  Indians,  294 

Siredon,  Metamorphosis  of,  into 
Amblystoma,  by  O.  C.  Marsh,  292 

Sloane  Physical  Laboratory,  Yale 
University,  345,  350 

Smith,  Dr.  Nathan,  107 

Smith,  Sydney,  Biography  by  Rus- 
sell, quoted,  98 

Smith,  Dr.  Theobald,  194  note 

Smithson,  James,  130,  138,  271;  see 
also  Smithsonian  Institution. 

Smithsonian  Institution,  story  of 
its  founding,  130;  first  Secretary, 
130,  132,  133;  Board  of  Regents, 
132;  divergent  views  respecting 
its  direction,  134;  partially  burned, 
137;  its  real  function,  139;  publi- 
cation of  Contributions  to  Knowl- 
edge, 139;  meteorological  observa- 
tions, 140;  system  of  exchanges, 
271,  276;  administration  of  Sec. 
Baird,  271-275;  appropriations  by 
Congress,  276;  also  9,  109,  272, 
275,  3i75  367,  368,  392,  393,  395, 
397,  398,  402 

Snake-bird,  On  a  threadworm  infest- 
ing the  brain  of  a,  by  Jeffries  Wy- 
man,  198 

Snow,  Dr.  Frank  H.  163 

Solar  eclipse,  of  1860,  369;  1869, 
1870,  377 

Solar  radiation,  researches  upon,  128 

Sound,  phenomena  of,  141 

South  America,  expedition  to,  by 
J.  B.  Von  Spix,  152 

Spencer,  Herbert,  260 

Spix,  Johann  Baptist  Von,  152 

Spontaneous  generation,  194 

Sprague,  Isaac,  83 

Squires,  Lewis,  83 

Stamp  Act,  repeal  of,  n 

Stassfurt  salt  deposits,  355 

Stein,  John,  78 

Sterling,  Dr.  Theodore,  430 

Sternberg,  C.  H.,  235  and  note,  326 

Stewart,  Dugald,  98 

Stiles,  Dr.  Ezra,  92,  106 

Stokes,  Prof.  G.  G.,  142 


Stowell,  Prof.,  163 

Straight,  Prof.  H.  H.,  163 

Striped  bass,  274;  see  also  Food-fishes 

Structural  Botany,  by  Asa  Gray,  223 

Struve,  Otto,  379 

Stutchbury,  Samuel,  189 

Subsidence,  Theory  of,  in  formation 

of  coral  reefs,  259-261 
Sully,  Thomas,  80 
Sumner,  Charles,  387 
Surface  tension,  49 
Surinam  toad,  gestation  of,  198 
Swainson,  William,  85 
Swordfishes,  monograph  on  the,  by 

G.  B.  Goode,  399 
Sylvester,  James  Joseph,  379 
Sylvester  prize,  380 
Synclines,  255,  256 
Synclinorium,    type    of    mountain 

range,  256 
Synoptical  Flora  of  North  America, 

by  Asa  Gray,  219 
System    of   Mineralogy,    by    J.    D. 

Dana,  236,  240,  243-245,  251,  264, 

265 

Taconic  Question,  262 
Talisman,  The,  401 
Teignmouth,  John  Shore,  Lord,  97 
Telegraph,  octoplex  printing,  425 
Telegraphic     message,     first,    126; 

see  also,  Henry,  Joseph 
Telescope  at  Washington,  378 
Tenney,  Sanborn,  432 
Text-book  of  Geology,  by  J.  D.  Dana, 

242,  243,  250 
Theoretische  Astronomie,  by  Klinker- 

fues,  356 
Theory  of  Heat,  by  Clerk  Maxwell, 

349 
Thermodynamics,  Science  of,  347- 

349 

Thermoscope,  34 
Thomas,  Dr.  Joseph,  316 
Thornton,  Samuel,  97 
Threadworm  Infesting  the  Brain  of  a 

Snake-bird,  On  a,  by  Jeffries  Wy- 

man,  198 

Tiedemann,  Friedrich,  150 
Tokio,  Imperial  University  of,  385 
Tompkins,  Daniel  D.,  62 
Toothed  birds,  300 
Torrey,  Dr.  John,  214-216 
Torricellian  vacuum,  37 


470 


INDEX 


Tortugas,  The,  Florida,  147 
Townsend,  John  K.,  86 
Toxodontia,  335 
.Transmutation  of  species,  249 
Travailleur,  The,  401 
Treadwell,  Daniel,  13 
Trituberculy,  Law  of,  330 
Troglodytes  gorilla,  see  Gorilla 
Trowbridge,  Prof.  John,  13,  417,423 
Trowbridge,  Dr.  John  F.,  213,  214 
Trumbull  Gallery  of  Paintings,  104, 

106 
Trunk-fishes,    monograph    on,    by 

G.  B.  Goode,  399 
Tunicates,  see  Salpa 
Turtles,  Respiration  of,  by  Mitchell 

and  Morehouse,  177 
Turton,  William,  68 
Tuttle,  Prof.  Albert  H.,  431,  435 
Tyndall,  John,  22,  45 

Uhler,  Dr.  Philip  R.,  438,  440 
Ungulates,    reclassification    of,    by 

E.  D.  Cope,  330 

Uniformitarianism,  system  of,  256 
Union  Pacific  railroad,  292 
United  States  Census,  loth,  1880, 

400 
United  States  Coast  Survey,  368, 

387 

United  States  Exploring  Expeclition, 
see  Wilkes  Exploring  Expedition 

United  States  Fish  Commission,  271, 
273,  277,  392,  397,  443;  see  also 
Woods  Hole 

United  States  Geological  and  Geo- 
graphical Survey  of  the  Terri- 
tories, 321 

United  States  Geological  Survey, 
297, 306, 308, 314;  see  also  Hayden 
Survey 

United  States  Geological  Survey  of 
the  4oth  parallel,  300 

United  States  Government,  early 
policy  toward  scientific  publica- 
tions, 239 

United  States  National  Museum, 
138,  270,  273,  276,  277,  280,  306, 
325,  328,  329,  386,  392,  399,  402 

University  extension  in  early  days, 
108 

Valenciennes,  Achille,  177 

Van  Rensselaer,  Gen.  Stephen,  121 


Vector  analysis,  system  of,  356,  359 

Ventilation,  theory  of,  33;  see  also 
Heat 

Venus,  expeditions  to  view  transits 
of,  378 

Vertcbrata  of  the  Cretaceous  Forma- 
tions of  the  West,  by  E.  D.  Cope, 
322 

Vertebrata  of  the  Tertiary  Formations 
of  the  West,  by  E.  D.  Cope,  322 

Vertebrate  Life  in  America,  Introduc- 
tion and  Succession  of,  by  O.  C. 
Marsh,  306 

Vincennes,  The,  see  Wilkes  Exploring 
Expedition 

Virginia  Cousins,  by  G.  B.  Goode, 

395 

Vogt,  Carl,  117 
Volcanic  cones,  262 
Volcanoes,  242,  261 

Waals,  J.  D.,  355^ 

Wadsworth,  Daniel,  113 

Walcott,  Charles  D.,  262 

Walker,  Francis  A.,  400 

Walker,  Dr.  William  J.,  180  note,  184 

Warren,  Dr.  John  C.,  175,  177 

Watt,  James,  97 

Webster,  Daniel,  196 

Webster,  John,  W.,  197 

Weismann,  August,  249 

Welch,  Dr.  W.  H.,  106 

Welles,  Hon.  Gideon,  ^370 

Wentworth,  Sir  John,  Gov.,  15 

Wernerian  theory,  100 

Whales,  198 

Wheeler,  G.  M.,  323 

White  Eagle,  Order  of,  conferred 
upon  Count  Rumford,  21 

Whitman,  Dr.  Charles  O.,  163 

Wilberforce,  William,  97 

Wilder,  Burt  G.,  163,  183  note 

Wilkes,  Lieut.  Charles,  see  Wilkes 
Exploring  Expedition 

Wilkes  Exploring  Expedition,  ves- 
sels and  route,  236-239;  publica- 
tion of  reports,  239,  245;  geology, 
259;  volcanoes,  261;  also  215,  216 

William  Henry,  Prince,  Duke  of 
Clarence,  19 

Wilson,  Alexander,  birth  and  early 
experiences,  52;  emigration  to 
America,  56;  life  as  a  teacher,  54- 
56,  59,  60;  love  of  poetry,  56,  60; 


INDEX 


471 


acquaintance  with  William  Bar- 
tram,  57;  begins  collection  of  birds, 
57;  success  in  bird  portraiture,  58; 
editor  Roe's  New  Cyclopedia,  60; 
freed  from  teaching,  60;  vain 
appeal  to  Pres.  Jefferson,  61; 
attempts  etching  on  copper,  61; 
first  plans  for  publication  of 
Ornithology,  61;  two  canvassing 
tours,  62;  varied  results,  62; 
volume  two  published,  64;  explo- 
rations beyond  the  Alleghanies, 
64;  letters  to  the  Portfolio,  64; 
attention  turned  to  water  birds, 
65;  gaining  recognition,  65;  vol- 
ume eight  published,  65;  death, 
66;  personality,  66;  attitude  of 
Audubon  toward,  and  comparison 
with,  67,  69;  his  value  to  science, 
68;  also  427 

Wilson,  Dr.  E.  B.,  356 

Wilson,  Rev.  J.  L.,  188,  189 

Wing,  Rev.  Augustus,  262 

Winlock,  Prof.  Joseph,  368 

Winthrop,  John,  Gov.,  10 

Wistar,  Dr.  Caspar,  95 

Wollaston,  Dr.  William  Hyde,  97 

Woodhouse,  Dr.  James,  95 

Woods  Hole,  280,  443 

Woodward,  A.  Smith,  327,  330,  334 

Woodward,  Dr.  Henry,  291 

Woolsey,  Dr.  Theodore  Dwight,  103 

Wortman,  Jacob  L.,  326 

Wright,  Prof.  A.  W.,  90 


Wyman,  Jeffries,  birth  and  early 
records,  173;  graduation  from 
Harvard,  173;  taste  for  nature, 
173;  studies  medicine,  175;  Cura- 
tor of  Lowell  Institute,  176;  goes 
abroad,  176;  list  of  his  reviews, 
177;  professorships,  177,  178; 
courses  of  lectures,  1 78  note;  Presi- 
dent of  Boston  Society  of  Natural 
History,  179;  Trustee  and  Cura- 
tor of  Peabody  Museum,  182; 
testimonial,  183;  marriages,  184; 
death,  185;  value  and  extent  of 
work,  185;  researches  on  gorilla 
and  history  of  discovery  as  a  new 
species,  186;  priority  of  claim,  189; 
second  paper,  190;  treatment  of 
race  problem,  191;  attitude  to- 
ward evolution,  193;  other  scien- 
tific problems,  195;  neurology, 
196;  discovery  concerning  thread- 
worms, 198;  value  as  a  scientist 
and  personal  characteristics,  199; 
also  116,  157 

Wyman,  Dr.  Morrill,  172, 173  note 

Yale  Medical  School,  104, 106 
Yerkes  Observatory,  378 
Young,  Dr.  Thomas,  45 

Zoophytes,  of  the  Wilkes  Expedi- 
tion, 239,  245;  classification  of? 
246 


Hmericans 

A  NEW  SERIES  OF  BIOGRAPHIES 
Edited  by  W.  P.  TRENT 

The  notable  interest  in  American  Biography  has  gener- 
ally been  met  by  two  widely  different  classes  of  publication 
— the  biographical  dictionaries,  and  volumes  devoted  each  to 
an  individual.  The  principal  notable  exception  was  the  Sparks 
Series,  but  that  appears  to  have  been  largely  devoted  to  persons 
who,  in  the  editor's  opinion,  had  suffered  unmerited  neglect; 
and  it  never  attempted  a  comprehensive  treatment  of  leading 
men  systematically  arranged.  There  seems  room  fora  series 
something  like  that  of  Sparks,  but  devoted  to  individuals  in 
whose  lives  everybody  is  interested. 

Such  a  one,  to  be  called  "Leading  Americans,"  is  now 
begun.  It  will  consist  of  large  i2mo  volumes,  each  containing 
from  half  a  dozen  to  a  score  of  biographies,  classified  by 
volumes  according  to  the  pursuits  of  the  men  treated.  It  will 
include  only  such  distinguished  characters  as  are  known  to 
virtually  all  reading  people,  and  will  be  written  by  the  most 
capable  authors  who  can  be  interested  in  the  task.  Pains  will 
be  taken  to  make  the  volumes  interesting  and  inspiring,  no  less 
than  reliable  and  instructive. 

The  books  are  designed  not  so  much  to  recount  history, 
as  to  portray  the  men  who,  in  their  respective  departments, 
have  made  history  in  the  widest  sense  of  the  word.  As  a  rule, 
the  biographies  of  living  persons  will  be  excluded,  except  where, 
as  with  the  explorers  and  inventors,  obvious  disadvantage  would 
result.  The  effort  will  be  made  not  to  allow  history  and 
criticism  to  preponderate  over  biography,  but  it  is  also  intended 
that  American  achievement  in  all  the  chief  fields  of  activity  shall 
be  adequately  covered  in  the  volume  or  volumes  devoted  to  a 
subject.  At  convenient  stages,  a  composite  index  will  be 
printed,  which  will  emphasize  the  unity  of  the  series  and 
facilitate  its  use  as  a  work  of  reference. 

It  is  not  intended  to  put  the  books  on  a  plane  that  would 
make  much  in  them  unattractive  to  any  boy  of  fifteen  who 
might  care  to  read  biography. 

[OVER] 


Hmericans  (Continued) 

The  first  three  volumes  are  ready. 
LEADING  AMERICAN  SOLDIERS 

WASHINGTON,  GREENE,  TAYLOR,  SCOTT,  ANDREW  JACKSON,  GRANT, 
SHERMAN,  SHERIDAN,  MCCLELLAN,  MEADE,  LEE,  "STONEWALL"  JACK- 
SON, JOSEPH  E.  JOHNSTON.  By  R.  M.  Johnston,  Lecturer  in  Harvard 
University,  Author  of  "Napoleon,"  etc.  Large  I2mo.  With  thirteen 
portraits.  $1-75  net.  The  persons  treated  will  be  remembered  chiefly  as 
soldiers,  and  as  soldiers  they  are  here  presented. 

LEADING  AMERICAN  NOVELISTS 

CHARLES  BROCKDEN  BROWN,   COOPER,    SIMMS,    HAWTHORNE,   MRS. 
STOWE  and  BRET  HARTE.     By  John  Erskine,  Adjunct  Professor  in  Colum- 
bia University.     Large  I2mo.     With  six  portraits.     $1-75  net. 
LEADING  AMERICAN  ESSAYISTS 

A  General  Introduction  dealing  with  essay  writing  in  America  and 
biographies  of  IRVING,  EMERSON,  THOREAU  and  GEORG^  WILLIAM  CURTIS. 
By  William  Morton  Payne,  Associate  Editor  of  the  The  Dial.  Large  I2mo. 
With  four  portrait*.  j  *j  £* 

The  following  additional  volumes  are  already  arranged  for  : 

Leading  American  Men  of  Science.  BENJAMIN  THOMPSON,  COUNT 
RUMFORD,  by  Edwin  E.  Slosson  ;  ALEXANDER  WILSON,  by  Witmer  Stone  ; 
JOHN  JAMES  AUDUBON,  by  Witmer  Stone  ;  BENJAMIN  SILLIMAN,  by  Daniel 
Coit  Gilman  ;  JOSEPH  HENRY,  by  Simon  Newcomb;  Louis  AGASSIZ,  by 
Charles  Frederick  Holder;  JEFFRIES  WYMAN,  by  Burt  G.  Wilder;  ASA 
GRAY,  by  John  M.  Coulter;  JAMKS  DWIGHT  DANA,  by  William  North  Rice; 
SPENCER  FULLERTON  BAIRD,  by  Charles  Frederick  Holder ;  OTHNIEL 
CHARLES  MARSH,  by  George  Bird  Grinnell  ;  EDWARD  DRINKER  COPE,  by 
Marcus  Benjamin  ;  JOSIAH  WILLARD  GIBBS,  by  Edwin  E.  Slosson  ;  SIMON 
NEWCOMB,  by  Marcus  Benjamin  ;  GEORGE  BROWN  GOODE.  by  David  Starr 
Jordan  ;  HENRY  AUGUSTUS  ROWLAND,  by  Ira  Remsen  ;  WILLIAM  KEITH 
BROOKS,  by  E.  A.  Andrews.  Edited  by  David  Starr  Jordan,  President  of 
Leland  Stanford  University. 

Leading  American  Lawyers.  By  Henry  C.  Merwin,  Author  of 
"Thomas  Jefferson"  (Riverside  Biographical  Series),  "Aaron  Burr" 
(Beacon  Biographies),  etc. 

Leading  American  Poets.  By  Curtis  Hidden  Page,  Professor  of  Eng- 
lish Literature  in  Northwestern  University. 

Leading  American  Statesmen.  By  John  Spencer  Bassett,  Professor 
of  History  in  Smith  College. 

Leading  American  Editors.  By  Frank  W.  Scott,  Assistant  Professor 
in  the  University  of  Illinois. 

Leading  American  Explorers.  By  Frederick  S.  Dellenbaugh,  Secre- 
tary of  the  American  Geographical  Society  and  author  of  "The  Romance 
of  the  Colorado  River,"  etc. 

Leading  American  Inventors.  By  George  lies,  author  of  "Flame, 
Electricity  and  the  Camera,"  "Inventors  at  Work— with  Chapters  on 
Discovery,"  etc. 

Biographies  of  Leading  American  Actors,  Artists,  Historians,  Engi- 
neers, Naval  Commanders,  Philanthropists  and  others  will,  with  the  favor 
of  the  public,  soon  be  announced. 

HENRY     HOLT     AND     COMPANY 

PUBLISHERS  OVER  NEW  YORK 


THE  AMERICAN  NATURE  SERIES 

In  the  hope  of  doing  something  toward  furnishing  a  series  where 
the  nature-lover  can  surely  find  a  readable  book  of  high  authority, 
the  publishers  of  the  American  Science  Series  have  begun  the  publi- 
cation of  the  American  Nature  Series.  It  is  the  intention  that  in  its 
own  way,  the  new  series  shall  stand  on  a  par  with  its  famous  prede- 
cessor. 

The  primary  object  of  the  new  series  is  to  answer  questions 
which  the  contemplation  of  Nature  is  constantly  arousing  in  the 
mind  of  the  unscientific  intelligent  person.  But  a  collateral  object 
will  be  to  give  some  intelligent  notion  of  the  "causes  of  things." 

While  the  cooperation  of  foreign  scholars  will  not  be  declined, 
the  books  will  be  under  the  guarantee  of  American  experts,  and  gen- 
erally from  the  American  point  of  view;  and  where  material  crowds 
space,  preference  will  be  given  to  American  facts  over  others  of  not 
more  than  equal  interest. 

The  series  will  be  in  six  divisions  : 

I.    NATURAL  HISTORY 

This  division  will  consist  of  two  sections. 

Section  A.  A  large  popular  Natural  History  in  several  vol- 
umes, with  the  topics  treated  in  due  proportion,  by  authors  of  un- 
questioned authority.  8vo,  T^xiOi  in. 

The  books  sofarpublisht  in  this  section  are: 

FISHES,  by  DAVID  STARK  JORDAN,  President  of  the  Leland  Stanford 
Junior  University.  $6.00  net;  carriage  extra. 

AMERICAN  INSECTS,  by  VERNON  L.  KELLOGG,  Professor  in  the 
Leland  Stanford  Junior  University.  $5.00  net;  carriage  extra. 

BIRDS  OF  THE  WORLD.  A  popular  account  by  FRANK  H. 
KNOWLTON,  M.S.,  Ph.D.,  Member  American  Ornithologists 
Union,  President  Biological  Society  of  Washington,  etc.,  etc., 
with  Chapter  on  Anatomy  of  Birds  by  FREDKRIC  A.  LUCAS, 
Chief  Curator  Brooklyn  Museum  of  Arts  and  Sciences,  and  edited 
by  ROBERT  RIDGWAY,  Curator  of  Birds,  U.  S.  National  Museum. 
$7.00  net;  carriage  extra. 

Arranged  for  are: 

SEEDLESS  PLANTS,  by  GEORGE  T.  MOORE,  Head  of  Department 
of  Botany,  Marine  Biological  Laboratory,  assisted  by  other  spe- 
cialists. 

WILD  MAMMALS  OF  NORTH  AMERICA,  by  C.  HART  MER- 
RIAM,  Chief  of  the  United  States  Biological  Survey. 

REPTILES  AND  BATRACHIANS,  by  LEONHARD  STEJNE&ER, 
Curator  of  Reptiles,  U.  S.  National  Museum. 


AMERICAN    NATURE    SERIES      (Continued) 

I.     NATURAL   HISTORY  (Continued) 

Section  B.  A  Shorter  Natural  History,  mainly  by  the  Authors 
of  Section  A,  preserving  its  popular  character,  its  proportional  treat- 
ment, and  its  authority  so  far  as  that  can  be  preserved  without  its 
fullness.  Size  not  yet  determined. 

II.    CLASSIFICATION  OF  NATURE 

1.  Library  Series,  very  full  descriptions.     8vo.     7^x10^  in. 

Already  publisht: 

NORTH  AMERICAN  TREES,  by  N.  L.  BRITTON,  Director  of  the 
New  York  Botanical  Garden.  $7.00  net;  carriage  extra. 

FERNS,  by  CAMPBELL  E.  WATERS,  of  Johns  Hopkins  University, 
$3.00  net;  by  mail,  $3.30. 

2.  Pocket  Series,  Identification  Books—"  How  to  Know,"  brief  and 

in  portable  shape. 

III.  FUNCTIONS   OF  NATURE 

These  books  will  treat  of  the  relation  of  facts  to  causes  and 
effects — of  heredity  and  the  relations  of  organism  to  environment. 
8vo.  6§x8g  in. 

Already  publisht: 

THE  BIRD  :  ITS  FORM  AND  FUNCTION,  by  C.  W.  BEEBE, 
Curator  of  Birds  in  the  New  York  Zoological  Park.  $3.50  net; 
by  mail,  $3.80. 

Arranged  for: 

THE  INSECT  :  ITS  FORM  AND  FUNCTION,  by  VERNON  L. 
KELLOGG,  Professor  in  the  Leland  Stanford  Junior  University. 

THE  FISH:  ITS  FORM  AND  FUNCTION,  by  H.  M.  SMITH,  of 
the  U.  S.  Bureau  of  Fisheries. 

IV.  WORKING  WITH  NATURE 

How  to  propagate,  develop,  care  for  and  depict  the  plants  and 
animals.  The  volumes  in  this  group  cover  such  a  range  of  subjects 
that  it  is  impracticable  to  make  them  of  uniform  size. 

Already  publisht: 

NATURE  AND  HEALTH,  by  EDWARD  CURTIS,  Professor  Emeritus 
in  the  College  of  Physicians  and  Surgeons.  12mo.  $1.25  net; 
by  mail,  $1.37. 

THE  FRESHWATER  AQUARIUM  AND  ITS  INHABITANTS. 
A  Guide  for  the  Amateur  Aquarist,  by  OTTO  EGGELING  and 
FREDERICK  EHRENBERG.  Large  12mo.  $2.00  net;  by  mail,  $2.19. 


AMERICAN    NATURE    SERIES     (Continued) 

IV.     WORKING   WITH   NATURE  (Continued) 

THE  LIFE  OF  A  FOSSIL  HUNTER,  by  CHARLES  H.  STERNBERG. 

Large  12rno.    $1.60  net;  by  mail,  $1.72. 
SHELL-FISH    INDUSTRIES,  by  JAMES  L.  KELLOGG,    Professor 

in  Williams  College.  Large  12mo.  $1.75  net;  by  mail,  $1.93. 
THE  CARE  OF  TREES  IN  LAWN,  STREET  AND  PARK,  by 

B.    E.    FERNOW,  Professor  of  Forestry,  University  of  Toronto. 

Large  12mo.     $2.00  net ;  by  mail,  $2.17. 
HARDY  PLANTS  FOR  COTTAGE  GARDENS,  by  HELEN  R. 

ALBEE.     Large  12mo.     $1.60  net ;  by  mail,  $1.74. 

Arranged  for; 

PHOTOGRAPHING  NATURE,  by  E.  R.  SANBORK,  Photographer 
of  the  New  York  Zoological  Park. 

CHEMISTRY  OF  DAILY  LIFE,  by  HENRY  P.  TALBOT,  Professor 
of  Chemistry  in  the  Massachusetts  Institute  of  Technology. 

DOMESTIC  ANIMALS,  by  WILLIAM  H.  BREWER,  Professor 
Emeritus  in  Yale  University. 

INSECTS  AND  DISEASE,  by  RENNIE  W.  DOANE,  Assistant  Pro- 
fessor in  the  Leland  Stanford  Junior  University. 

.  V.    DIVERSIONS    FROM  NATURE 

This  division  will  include  a  wide  range  of  writings  not  rigidly 
systematic  or  formal,  but  written  only  by  authorities  of  standing. 
Large  12mo.  5ix8fc  in. 

Already  publisht: 
INSECT  STORIES,  by  VERNON  L.  KELLOGG.    $1.50  net;  by  mail, 

$1.62. 
FISH  STORIES,  by  CHARLES  F.  HOLDER  and  DAVID  STARR  JORDAN. 

$1.75  net;  by  mail,  $1.87. 

Arranged  for; 

HORSE  TALK,  by  WILLIAM  H.  BREWER. 
BIRD  NOTES,  by  C.  W.  BEEBE. 

VI.    THE  PHILOSOPHY  OF  NATURE 

A  Series  of  volumes  by  President  JORDAN,  of  Stanford  Univer- 
sity, and  Professors  BROOKS  of  Johns  Hopkins,  LULL  of  Yale,  THOM- 
SON of  Aberdeen,  PRZIBRAM  of  Austria,  ZUR  STRASSEN  of  Germany, 
and  others.  Edited  by  Professor  KELLOGG  of  Leland  Stanford.  12mo. 
5jx7*  in. 

Arranged  JOT:  t 

THE   STABILITY    OF   TRUTH,  by  DAVID  STARR  JORDAN. 
HENRY    HOLT    AND    COMPANY,    NEW  YORK 

JOLV,  '10. 

3 


JANE  G.  PERKINS'S 

THE  LIFE  OF  THE  HONOURABLE  MRS.  NORTON 

) 

With  portraits,  8vo.     $3.50  net ;  by  mail,  $3.68. 

Mrs.  Norton  was  the  great  Sheridan's  grand-daughter, 
beautiful  and  witty,  the  author  of  novels,  poems  and  songs, 
contesting  contemporary  popularity  with  Mrs.  Browning ;  her 
influence  was  potent  in  politics  ;  Meredith  undoubtedly  had 
her  in  mind  when  he  drew  "  Diana  of  the  Crossways." 

"  Reads  like  a  novel  .  .  .  seems  like  the  page  from  an  old  romance,  and 
Miss  Perkins  has  preserved  all  its  romantic  charm.  .  .  .  Miss  Perkins  has 
let  letters,  and  letters  unusually  interesting,  tell  much  of  the  story.  ...  In- 
deed her  biography  has  all  the  sustained  interest  of  the  novel,  almost  the 
irresistible  march  of  fate  of  the  Greek  drama.  It  is  eminently  reliable."— 
Boston  Transcript. 

"  Brilliant,  beautiful,  unhappy,  vehement  Caroline  Norton.  .  .  .  Her 
st9ry  is  told  here  with  sympathy,  but  yet  fairly  enough  .  .  .  interesting 
glimpses  ...  of  the  many  men  and  women  of  note  with  whom  Mrs.  Norton 
was  brought  into  more  or  less  intimate  association."— Providence  Journal. 

"  The  generous  space  allowed  her  to  tell  her  own  story  in  the  form  of 
intimate  letters  is  a  striking  and  admirable  feature  of  the  book."—  The  Dial. 

"  She  was  an  uncommonly  interesting  personage,  and  the  memoir  .  .  . 
has  no  dull  spots  and  speedily  wins  its  way  to  a  welcome."— New  York 
Tribune. 

"  So  exceptional  and  vivid  a  personality  ...  of  unusual  quality  .  .  .  very 
well  written."—  The  Outlook. 


YUNG   WING'S  MY  LIFE  IN  CHINA  AND  AMERICA 

With  portrait,  8vo.     $2.50  net ;  by  mail,  $2.65. 

The  author's  account  of  his  early  life  in  China,  his  education  at 
Yale,  where  he  graduated  in  1854  (LL.D.,  1876),  his  return 
to  China  and  adventures  during  the  Taiping  rebellion,  his 
intimate  association  withTsang  Kwoh  Fan  and  Li  Hung  Chang, 
and  finally  his  great  work  for  the  "  Chinese  Educational  Move- 
ment "  furnish  highly  interesting  and  good  reading. 

"  It  is  his  native  land  that  is  always  the  great  heroic  character  on  the  stage 
his  mind  surveys ;  and  his  mental  grasp  is  as  wide  as  his  domiciliation.  A 
great  life  of  action  and  reflection  and  the  experiences  of  two  hemispheres. 
It  is  not  so  much  a  knowledge  of  isolated  facts  that  is  to  be  got  from  the 
book  as  an  understanding  of  the  character  of  the  Chinese  race."— Hartford 
Courant. 

"  There  is  not  a  dull  line  in  this  simply  told  but  fascinating  biography."— 
Literary  Digest. 

"  He  has  given  Occidental  readers  an  opportunity  to  behold  the  machinery 
of  Chinese  custom  and  the  substance  of  Chinese  character  in  action.  No 
foreigner  could  possibly  have  written  a  work  so  instructive,  and  no  un- 
travelled  native  could  have  made  it  intelligible  to  the  West  ...  a  most  in- 
teresting story  both  in  the  telling  and  in  the  acting.  .  .  .  Mr.  Yung  presents 
each  of  his  readers  with  a  fragment  of  China  herself."— Living  Age. 

HENRY     HOLT     AND     COMPANY 

PUBLISHERS  NEW  YORK 


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